Diffractive optical element, objective lens module, optical pickup, and optical information recording and reproducing apparatus
An objective lens module includes a light-converging lens that is coaxially disposed with respect to an optical axis of first laser light having a first wavelength, and a transmission-type diffractive optical element that is coaxially disposed to cause diffracted light of first laser light to be incident on the light-converging lens. The diffractive optical element has an incident surface and an emergent surface, and first, second, and third regions that are provided on at least of the incident surface and the emergent surface inthe vicinity of the optical axis, and are sequentially defined according to different radius distances from the optical axis to have different diffraction gratings of different diffraction angles, respectively. The first region diffracts odd-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, the second region diffracts even-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, and the third region diffracts even-order or zero-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, such that the light-converging lens converges diffracted light from the first, second, and third regions with a predetermined numerical aperture.
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1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical system of an optical pickup in an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus which records and reproduces information for optical discs having different corresponding wavelengths. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus which allows compatibility for a plurality of optical recording mediums using laser light sources of different wavelengths, to an optical pickup, to an objective lens module, and to a diffractive optical element.
2. Description of Related Art
As an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus, an optical disc apparatus is known in which recorded information can be read from an optical recording medium, that is, an optical disc, such as digitalversatile disc (hereinafter, referred to as DVD), compact disc (hereinafter, referred to as CD), or the like.
A compatible optical disc apparatus is known in which recorded information can be read from DVD and CD. As for DVD, the substrate thickness is 0.6 mm, the corresponding wavelength is in a range of 635 nm to 655 nm, and the numerical aperture (NA) of an objective lens is about 0.6. As for CD, the substrate thickness is 1.2 mm, the corresponding wavelength is in a range of 760 to 800 nm, and the numerical aperture of an objective lens is about 0.45. In the compatible optical disc apparatus, there is a case in which a laser light source having a wavelength λDVD in the vicinity of the wavelength 660 nm for DVD and a laser light source having a wavelength λCD in the vicinity of the wavelength 780 nm for CD are mounted.
For example, a technology is suggested in which an optical pickup device for allowing information to be recorded and reproduced for information recording mediums having different substrate thicknesses for DVD/CD, and an objective lens and an optical element used for the optical pickup device are provided (JP-A-2001-235676). The optical pickup device is suggested in which the objective lens having diffractive orbicular zones is used for the optical pickup device, such that, with an outside light flux of a predetermined numerical aperture in a use state of a small numerical aperture as a flare, recording and reproducing of information are performed for various information recording mediums having different thicknesses. The objective lens having such diffractive orbicular zones includes a diffraction surface having the diffractive orbicular zones. Here, when a function of an optical path difference of the diffraction surface is φ(h) (where h is a distance from an optical axis), dφ(h)/dh is a discontinuous or substantially discontinuous function at a place of a predetermined distance h.
On the other hand, as for blue-ray disc (hereinafter, referred to as BD), the thickness of a transmissive protection layer (which corresponds to the thickness of a transparent substrate of DVD or the like) is 0.1 mm, the corresponding wavelength is 408 nm, and the numerical aperture of an objective lens is about 0.85. Accordingly, in a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical disc apparatus, a laser light source which emits laser light of λBD in the vicinity of the wavelength 408 nm, that is, an optical system, needs to be mounted, in addition to the configuration of the above-described compatible optical disc apparatus. Further, since the optical discs of BD, DVD, and CD have different thicknesses, a unit for correcting three kinds of different spherical aberrations needs to be provided. In addition, since all of them have different numerical apertures, a corresponding unit also needs to be provided. However, in JP-A-2001-235676 described above, the specified descriptions of these units are not given. That is, it is difficult to realize compatibility of three or more kinds of recording mediums having different light source wavelengths, numerical apertures (effective diameters), optical disc thicknesses (the thickness of a transmissive protection layer), such as BD, DVD, CD, and the like by use of a single objective lens according to the related art.
In order to realize an optical pickup for a compatible apparatus, a method is suggested in which an objective lens exclusively used for BD and a DVD/CD compatible objective lens are used, and are switched according to wavelengths. In this case, however, since two objective lenses are used, a complex lens switching mechanism needs to be provided, which causes a problem in that manufacturing costs are increased. In addition, since an actuator is made large, it is disadvantageous to reduce the size of the apparatus. Further, a method may be considered in which an objective lens and a collimator lens are incorporated, but, since the collimator is fixedwith respect to the objective lens, it may be difficult to maintain performance at the time of movement of the objective lens.
In any cases, if a plurality of light sources are used, and an optical system of exclusive prism, lens, and the like is configured in order to ensure compatibility of BD, DVD, and CD, an optical pickup or an overall optical head is complicated, and tends to have the large size.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONAccordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus which is capable of recording and reproducing for optical discs or recording surfaces having different correspondingwavelengths and is suitable for reducing the size, an optical pickup device, and a diffractive optical element.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, an objective lens module includes a light-converging lens that is coaxially disposed with respect to an optical axis of first laser light having a first wavelength, and a transmission-type diffractive optical element that is coaxially disposed to cause diffracted light of first laser light to be incident on the light-converging lens. The diffractive optical element has an incident surface and an emergent surface, and first, second, and third regions that are provided on at least of the incident surface and the emergent surface in the vicinity of the optical axis, and are sequentially defined according to different radius distances from the optical axis to have different diffraction gratings of different diffraction angles, respectively. The first region diffracts odd-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, the second region diffracts even-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, and the third region diffracts even-order or zero-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, such that the light-converging lens converges diffracted light from the first, second, and third regions with a predetermined numerical aperture.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a diffractive optical element which is provided on an optical path common to first laser light and plural laser light in order to cause an objective lens for converging first laser light on a first recording medium to be shared for plural laser light having wavelengths different from that of first laser light and a plurality of recording mediums corresponding to plural laser light. Plural laser light have second laser light corresponding to a second recording medium and third laser light corresponding to a third recording medium. The diffractive optical element includes a first diffractive lens structure that is provided in the vicinity of an optical axis so as to correct an aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second and third laser light, and a second diffractive lens structure that is provided in the vicinity of the first diffractive lens structure so as to correct an aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second laser light.
In the diffractive optical element according to the second aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the first recording medium have a recording layer for receiving light through a transmissive protection layer having a first thickness, the second recording medium have a recording layer for receiving light through a transmissive protection layer having a second thickness equal to or larger than the first thickness, and the third recording medium have a recording layer for receiving light through a transmissive protection layer having a third thickness larger than the second thickness.
In the diffractive optical element according to the second aspect of the present invention, it is preferable that the first diffractive lens structure correct the aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference between the first thickness of the transmissive protection layer and the second and third thicknesses of the transmissive protection layers, in addition to the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second and third laser light. Further, it is preferable that the second diffractive lens structure correct the aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference between the first thickness of the transmissive protection layer and the second thickness of the transmissive protection layer, in addition to the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second laser light.
In addition, the diffractive optical element according to the second aspect of the present invention may further include a third diffractive lens structure that is provided on an incident surface or an emergent surface of the diffractive optical element so as to correct a chromatic aberration to be generated due to a wavelength change of first laser light by a very small amount.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, an optical pickup includes the above-described objective lens module or diffractive optical element. Further, according to a fourth aspect of the present invention, an optical information recording and reproducing apparatus includes the above-described optical pickup.
In such a configuration of the objective lens module or the pickup in which the diffractive optical element is used, with the study for the diffractive optical element, BD, DVD, and CD can be designed as an infinite system, such that an optical path of the pickup can be simplified.
At the time of BD/DVD/CD compatible, a diffractive lens structure for chromatic aberration correction may be added to a diffractive optical element for spherical aberration correction, and thus a discontinuous chromatic aberration can be corrected.
The diffractive lens structure for spherical aberration correction and the diffractive lens structure for chromatic aberration correction may be integrated. Therefore, it is possible to prevent a trouble in correcting a discontinuous chromatic aberration correction due to an adjustment error at the time of assembling or a lens shift caused by tracking.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
(Optical Pickup)
In addition, the optical pickup has an optical axis coupling prism (color synthesizing prism) 10 of an optical axis coupling element for providing an optical path common to first, second, and third laser light λBD, λDVD, and λCD. As shown in
Further, on a downstream side of the optical axis of the optical axis coupling prism 10, the optical pickup has a beam splitter 13, a collimator lens 14, and an objective lens module 16. With such an optical irradiation optical system, laser light from at least one of the first semiconductor laser LD1 and the second semiconductor laser LD2 passes through the optical axis coupling prism 10 and the beam splitter 13, becomes parallel laser light while transmitting the collimator lens 14, and is converged by the objective lens module 16 toward an optical disc 5, which is disposed in the vicinity of a focal point of the objective lens module 16 to form an optical spot on the pit row of an information recording surface of the optical disc 5.
In addition to such an irradiation optical system, the optical pickup further has a detection optical system, such as a detecting lens 17. Here, the objective lens module 16 and the beam splitter 13 are also used for the detection optical system. Reflected light from the optical disc 5, such as BD, DVD, or CD, is converged by the objective lens module 16 to be directed toward a detection light-converging lens 17 by the beam splitter 13. Light converged by the detecting lens 17 passes through an astigmatism generating element (not shown), such as a cylindrical lens, a multi lens, or the like, and forms an optical spot in the vicinity of a center of a light-receiving surface 20 of a quadrisected optical detector, which has four light-receiving surfaces quadrisected by two line segments perpendicular to each other.
Further, the light-receiving surface 20 of the optical detector is connected to a demodulating circuit 30 and an error detecting circuit 31. The error detecting circuit 31 is connected to a driving circuit 33 which drives a mechanism including an actuator 26 for tracking control and focus control of the objective lens module.
The quadrisected optical detector supplies an electrical signal in accordance with an optical spot image formed in the vicinity of the center of the light-receiving surface 20 to the demodulating circuit 30 and the error detecting circuit 31. The demodulating circuit 30 generates a recording signal on the basis of the electrical signal. The error detecting circuit 31 generates a focus error signal, a tracking error signal, or other servo signals on the basis of the electrical signal, and supplies the individual driving signals to the actuator through the driving circuit 33 of the actuator so as to servo-control and -drive the objective lens module 16 and the like in accordance with various driving signals.
(Objective Lens Module)
As shown in
The objective lens module 16 is an assembly of compound objective lenses, in which a light-converging lens (reference lens) 16a for converging laser light on the recording surface and a diffractive optical element 16b (DOE) having diffractive orbicular zones (rotary symmetrical member about an optical axis), which are a plurality of phase steps on a transmissive flat plate, that is, diffraction gratings, are incorporated. The light-converging lens 16a and the diffractive optical element 16b are coaxially disposed with respect to the optical axis by a holder 16c, and the diffractive optical element 16b having the diffraction gratings is disposed on the optical path from the light source, that is, the optical axis coupling prism 10 up to the light-converging lens 16a.
As the light-converging lens 16a, an aspherical lens (objective lens for BD), which has a numerical aperture 0.85 with a corrected aberration for the wavelength range of λBD of 400 nm to 410nm, and the thickness of the transmissive protection layer of 0.1 mm, is used.
(Diffractive Optical Element)
The diffractive optical element 16b of the present embodiment can record and reproduce for DVD and CD, together with the objective lens for BD.
As shown in
The diffractive orbicular zones 16e of the diffractive optical element constitute a diffractive lens structure. A diffractive lens is a lens which is obtained by forming a diffraction surface on a surface of an aspherical lens, and the diffractive lens structure has concentric phase steps formed on a macroscopic aspherical shape. As shown in
In an innermost region 1, in order to realize a diffractive lens structure in which a spherical aberration correction effect on first laser light (laser light for BD, the wavelength 408 nm) is not obtained, and spherical aberration correction effects on second laser light (laser light for DVD, the wavelength 660 nm) and third laser light (laser light for CD, the wavelength 780 nm) are obtained, a first diffractive lens structure (a first aberration correction unit) is formed such that the combination of diffracted light {for example, (BD: first-order light, DVD: first-order light, CD: first-order light), (BD: third-order light, DVD: second-order light, CD: second-order light), (BD: seventh-order light, DVD: fourth-order light, CD: third-order light), or (BD: ninth-order light, DVD: fifth-order light, CD: fourth-order light)} can be utilized. Moreover, the combination of (BD: fifth-order light, DVD: third-order light, CD: second or third-order light) may be excluded since phase differences caused by the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure are made uniform by laser light for BD and laser light for DVD. Accordingly, the first diffractive lens structure is designed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the first diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has an odd diffraction order, excluding a multiple of five. The diffraction efficiency of diffracted light to be generated by the diffractive lens structure can be adjusted by the step amount of the concentric phase step constituting the diffractive lens structure. In particular, in the region 1, if the phase step amount is determined such that diffraction efficiency of laser light for BD becomes the maximum, diffracted light of a desired diffraction order of laser light for CD cannot have sufficient diffraction efficiency, and simultaneously unnecessary diffracted light occurs. Accordingly, it is preferable that the diffractive lens structure be designed in consideration of the balance between diffraction efficiency of laser light for BD and diffraction efficiency of laser light for CD. Moreover, when the diffractive lens structure is designed in consideration of the diffraction efficiency balance, as the difference in optical path length caused by the phase steps is shifted from an integer multiple of a wavelength, a serrate wavefront aberration partially occurs. However, since deterioration of the spot shape due to the serrate wavefront aberration almost not occurs, a problem is not caused. The depth of each of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure is designed such that the difference in optical path length to be generated is the same in all the phase steps, but is designed such that the difference in optical path length caused by an outermost phase step is different from the differences in optical path length caused by other phase steps. Therefore, the phase can be further accurately adapted to the wavefront passing through other regions, and more favorable light-converging property can be obtained.
In a region 2 of an intermediate portion outside the region 1, in order to realize a diffractive lens structure in which spherical aberration correction effects on laser light for BD and laser light for CD are not obtained, and a spherical aberration correction effect on laser light for DVD is obtained, a second diffractive lens structure (a second aberration correction unit) is formed such that the combination of diffracted light {for example, (BD: second-order light, DVD: first-order light, CD: first-order light), (BD: fourth-order light, DVD: second-order light, CD: second-order light), (BD: sixth-order light, DVD: fourth-order light, CD: third-order light), or (BD: eighth-order light, DVD: fifth-order light, CD: fourth-order light)) can be utilized. At the time of tenth-order diffracted light on BD, phase differences caused by the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure on laser light corresponding to recording and reproducing all the recording mediums are made uniform, and the aberration correction effect is not selectively exerted only on laser light for DVD. Accordingly, the second diffractive lens structure is designed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when laser light for BD passes through the second diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has an even diffraction order, excluding a multiple of ten. The depth of each of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure may be set to generate the difference in optical path length such that diffraction efficiency of laser light for BD is the maximum according to a required specification or such that diffraction efficiency of laser light for BD and diffraction efficiency of laser light for DVD are balanced. Further, when a serrate wavefront aberration occurs, like the region 1, if the difference in optical path length caused by only an outermost phase step is different from others, more favorable light-converging property can be obtained.
In a region 3 of an outer circumferential portion outside the region 2, in order to realize a diffractive lens structure in which spherical aberration correction effects on all the wavelengths are not obtained, a third diffractive lens structure (a third aberration correction unit) is formed such that the combination of diffracted light (for example, BD: tenth-order light, DVD: sixth-order light, CD: fifth-order light) can be utilized. Further, the region 3 may not have the diffractive lens structure (so as to transmit only zero-order light). Accordingly, a predetermined numerical aperture for BD of 0.85 is implemented.
In the example of
As such, the diffractive optical element of the present embodiment is provided with the diffractive lens structure which has minute concentric phase steps on at least one surface thereof in order to correct the spherical aberration caused by the difference in thickness between the transmissive protection layers of BD/DVD/CD. Accordingly, the spherical aberration can be corrected for all BD, DVD, and CD as an infinite system, and simultaneously apertures can be limited to the numerical apertures required for recording and reproducing of the individual optical discs.
Next, the action of the diffractive lens structure for realizing the limitation of different numerical apertures (effective diameters) of DVD/CD by the selection of the diffraction order will be described in detail.
The diffractive lens structure is formed of a plurality of minute phase steps on a surface of an optical material. If laser light of a wavelength λ passes through a phase step having a depth d formed on an optical material of a refractive index N, the difference of optical path length of {(N−1)d/λ}×λ occurs in a wavefront corresponding to the phase step. When the difference in optical path length caused by each of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure is {(N−1)d/λ}×λ, in the diffractive lens structure for light of the wavelength λ, diffraction efficiency of ROUND [(N−1)d/λ]-order light becomes the maximum. However, ROUND [ ] is an integer number obtained by rounding off a numerical value in [ ] to the nearest integer. Further, the aberration amount to be corrected in one of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure is represented by [ROUND [(N−1)d/λ]−{(N−1)d/λ}]λ. That is, when (N−1)d/λ is an integer number, that is, the difference in optical path length caused by the phase step is an integer multiple of the wavelength, the aberration amount to be corrected in the phase step is zero, and diffraction efficiency substantially becomes 100%. In contrast, as (N−1)d/λ is shifted from the integer number, that is, as the difference in optical path length caused by the phase step is shifted from the integer multiple of the wavelength, the aberration amount to be corrected in one phase step is made large, and diffraction efficiency is decreased.
The refractive index N of the optical material is different according to the wavelength. That is, as the wavelength is made short, the refractive index is made high. The wavelength λBD of laser light for BD is about 408 nm, the wavelength λCD of laser light for CD is about 780 nm, and the refractive index changes according to the wavelength, as described above. Accordingly, when laser light for BD and laser light for CD pass through the same phase step, the ratio of the values of (N−1)d/λ substantially becomes 2:1.
That is, in the phase step that generates the difference in optical path length of 2 m λBD (where m is an integer number) on laser light for BD, the difference in optical path length of about m λCD is generated on laser light for CD. Accordingly, 2 m-th-order light of laser light for BD has the maximum diffraction efficiency. Then, when the diffractive lens structure is designed such that the spherical aberration correction effect is not obtained on laser light for BD, m-th-order light of laser light for CD has the maximum diffraction efficiency. Here, since the diffractive lens structure does not have the spherical aberration correction effect on laser right for CD, the correction of the spherical aberration on CD is disabled.
On the other hand, if the phase step amount of the diffractive lens structure is set such that the difference in optical path length of (2m+1) λBD is generated on laser light for BD, diffracted light of an odd order of (2m+1)-th-order has the maximum diffraction efficiency. In this case, the difference in optical path length caused by the phase step on laser light for CD becomes about (m+½) λCD. That is, in laser light for BD and laser light for CD, the shift amount from the integer multiple of the wavelength of the difference in optical path length caused by the phase step is different. Therefore, it is possible to implement a diffractive lens structure in which the aberration correction effect on laser light for BD is not obtained, and the aberration correction effect on laser light for CD is obtained.
In addition, with such a phenomenon, as shown in
However, when the diffractive lens structures are designed such that the difference in optical path length caused by each of the phase steps constituting the individual diffractive lens structures becomes 5 λBD, the difference in optical path length caused by the phase step becomes about 3 λDVD on laser light for DVD, the correction of the spherical aberration in DVD is disabled, without causing the spherical aberration in BD. That is, the first diffractive lens structure may be a structure which uses odd-order diffracted light of laser light for BD, excluding a multiple of five, and the second diffractive lens structure may be a structure which uses even-order diffracted light of laser light for BD, excluding a multiple of ten.
As for the region 3 outside the second diffraction effective diameter corresponding to the DVD effective diameter, if the spherical aberration is not corrected on both DVD and CD, light can be diffused as flares on both DVD and CD, without causing the aberration for BD. In addition, in the region 2 within the second diffraction effective diameter and outside the third diffraction effective diameter, since the spherical aberration exists only on CD, light only on CD can be diffused as flares.
As such, from diffracted light to be generated when laser light having the shortest wavelength of a plurality of light-source wavelengths to be used is incident, the diffraction order of diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency becomes an odd number (excluding the multiple of five) in the diffractive lens structure formed in the region 1, and becomes an even number (excluding the multiple of ten) in the diffractive lens structure formed in the region 2 between the innermost circumference and the outermost circumference. Then, the spherical aberration is corrected only on light in the effective diameters corresponding to three different numerical apertures, but is not corrected on light outside the effective diameters, such that light outside the effective diameters can be diffused as flares.
Accordingly, the diffractive lens structure, which is divided into three regions by two circles around the optical axis and which has concentric minute phase steps in at least two regions, can impart the most suitable numerical aperture for light of BD/DVD/CD having different numerical apertures.
Moreover, as a method of imparting the most suitable numerical aperture for light of BD/DVD/CD, without using such a configuration, a method can also be considered in which a concentric film having transmittance of wavelength selectivity is provided. In this case, however, it is difficult to partially provide the film, which causes the manufacturing process to be complicated.
Next, a unit for correcting the different amount of the spherical aberration of DVD/CD will be described in detail.
Since the thickness of the transmissive protection layer (the substrate) of DVD is 0.6 mm and the thickness of the transmissive protection layer (the substrate) of CD is 1.2 mm, the amount of the spherical aberration to be corrected is different. That is, in a diffractive lens structure which is designed for BD/DVD compatible, it may be impossible to completely correct the spherical aberration for CD. Similarly, in a diffractive lens structure which is designed for BD/CD compatible, it may be impossible to completely correct the spherical aberration for DVD. This is because the ratio of the values of the amount of the aberration [ROUND [(N−1)×d/λ]−{(N−1)×d/λ}] λ to be corrected in one of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure cannot be set to be equal to the ratio of the amounts of the spherical aberration to be corrected of DVD and CD. In this case, by making incident light to either DVD or CD as divergent light or convergent light, the spherical aberration, which was not corrected by the diffractive lens structure, can be corrected. However, when BD/DVD is set as parallel incident light and only CD is set as divergent light or convergent light, the configuration of a pickup may be complicated. From this viewpoint, all BD/DVD/CD are preferably set as parallel incident light.
As a method for implementing this, three methods to be described below are considered.
As a first method, a method may be considered in which, in the configuration shown in
As a second method, as shown in
As a third method, the inventors have found that all BD/DVD/CD can be set to parallel incident light through a design method different from the above-described first and second methods. Hereinafter, the detailed description thereof will be given.
The spherical aberration is proportional to the fourth power of the numerical aperture of the lens. Accordingly, as shown in
In view of the diffraction orders of BD/DVD/CD having the maximum diffraction efficiency and the spherical aberration correction and aperture limitation effects, the combination of the diffraction orders of laser light for BD to be used for the individual regions can be collected, as shown in Table 1.
(Operation of Objective Lens Module)
As shown in
Further, as shown in
In addition, as shown in
(Chromatic Aberration Correction)
When the diffractive optical element has a chromatic aberration correction function, a discontinuous chromatic aberration due to the addition of the diffractive lens structure for spherical aberration correction can be corrected, and a stable operation can be implemented even when the wavelength of laser changes.
In BD, the numerical aperture of a corresponding objective lens is very large, that is, 0.85, and the wavelength of a light source to be used is short, a focal depth becomes shallow. Accordingly, it is preferable to correct the chromatic aberration. In general, the chromatic aberration may be corrected by combining lenses formed of glasses having different refractive indexes and by causing the chromatic aberrations of the lenses to cancel each other. Alternatively, the chromatic aberration may be corrected by causing to cancel a chromatic aberration to be generated by a separate diffractive optical element.
In case of the present embodiment, in order to simultaneously perform the spherical aberration correction and the aperture limitation of DVD or CD, the diffractive optical element having the diffractive lens structures of partially different properties is adopted, and thus a different chromatic aberration property is obtained for each region. In such a case, the aberration correction is complicated with a general combined lens in which two spherical lenses formed of optical materials having different wavelength dispersions are combined. The inventors have adopted the diffractive lens structures in order to correct such a discontinuous chromatic aberration. Specifically, the diffractive lens structure for spherical aberration correction is designed such that the chromatic aberrations in the region 1 and the region 2 are not discontinuous and the diffractive lens structure for chromatic aberration correction is formed in the region 3 such that the chromatic aberration of the region 3 is not discontinuous.
In the present embodiment, since the spherical aberration is corrected by the above-described BD/DVD/CD compatible diffractive lens structure, there is no case in which a surplus aberration other than the chromatic aberration correction occurs for all BD, DVD, and CD. In the present embodiment, the third diffractive lens structure is the diffractive lens structure for chromatic aberration correction, and can use the combination of, for example, BD: tenth-order light, DVD: sixth-order light, and CD: fifth-order light, which does not occur a surplus aberration other than the chromatic aberration correction for all BD, DVD, and CD. In this case, the third diffractive lens structure is designed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the third diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has a diffraction order of a multiple of ten.
In order to correct the discontinuous chromatic aberrations by the first and second diffractive lens structures (for spherical aberration correction) formed in the region 1 and the region 2 and simultaneously a chromatic aberration of the objective lens itself, the third diffractive lens structure (a chromatic aberration correction unit) needs to be formed on the entire surface of the BD effective diameter (including the DVD and CD effective diameters). In this case, it is not desirable that the diffractive lens structure for spherical aberration correction and the diffractive lens structure for chromatic aberration correction are shifted on the basis of the optical axis, and thus the diffractive lens structure for spherical aberration correction and the diffractive lens structure for chromatic aberration correction are preferably provided in one diffractive optical element. As shown in
Besides, the first diffractive lens structure may be formed on a surface different from the second diffractive lens structure and the third diffractive lens structure. Further, the second diffractive lens structure may be formed on a surface different from the first diffractive lens structure and the third diffractive lens structure. Preferably, the first diffractive lens structure, the second diffractive lens structure, and the third diffractive lens structure are formed on one surface, and all the directions of the phase steps formed in the individual surfaces (depthwise directions) are the same.
When these diffractive lens structures are provided in one diffractive optical element, as shown in
Moreover, the difference in optical path length caused by each of the phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure and the difference in optical path length caused by each of the phase steps constituting one of the first and second diffractive lens structures are preferably different from each other. Further, there may be a case in which, from the phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure, in order to tune the phases with each other between the regions, one of or all the phase steps in the vicinities of the first, second, and fourth diffraction effective diameters are preferably set to generate the difference in optical path length different from those of other phase steps.
In addition, in the diffractive optical element having the plurality of diffractive lens structures, as shown in
At the time of forming the plurality of diffractive lens structures on the same surface and in the same region such that the diffractive lens structures are collected on one surface, when two adjacent phase steps are close to each other, the two phase steps are synthesized into one phase step so as to reduce the number of phase steps. Therefore, the mold can be easily manufactured and mold-release property can be enhanced, such that molding defectives are reduced. As a result, a diffractive optical element can be maintained with high quality and the costs can be reduced. Further, a loss of the amount of light due to a manufacturing error, such as roundness of an edge of the step or sag of a step wall surface is increased in accordance with the number of the steps, so it is further preferable to decrease the step numbers for reducing the loss of the amount of light.
As shown in
By suitably selecting diffraction orders, which are used for the plurality of diffractive lens structures to be synthesized, as shown in
Further, although the diffractive optical element having the diffractive lens structures and the objective lens are described as separate optical elements in the above description, as shown in
As shown in Table 2, the combination of the diffraction orders used for the individual regions can be specifically collected.
Table 2 shows the diffraction orders of DVD and CD with respect to the diffraction order of the diffractive lens structure used for BD, the amount of the aberration correction by one phase step (the value obtained by subtracting the difference in optical path length caused by the step from the diffraction order to be used), and diffraction efficiency. Moreover, diffraction efficiency shown in Table 2 is an example in which the diffractive lens structure is blazed such that diffraction efficiency on the laser source for BD becomes one. As for actual design, by changing the phase step amount, design can be achieved in consideration of the balance of diffraction efficiency in BD, DVD, and CD. Accordingly, in an actual diffractive lens manufacture, the combinations A to D of diffraction efficiency of BD, DVD, and CD are not limited to the numerical values of Table 2.
*A: The spherical aberration can be corrected for both CD and DVD (used in the region 1).
B: The spherical aberration can be corrected only for DVD (used in the region 2).
C: Only the chromatic aberration can be corrected (used in the region 3).
D: The spherical aberration can be corrected only for CD.
In general, the difference in optical path length A caused by the step formed in the material having the refractive index N satisfies Δ=(N−1)d. Here, d is a distance between the steps, that is, between the surfaces of adjacent steps. Accordingly, the differences in optical path length ΔBD, ΔDVD, and ΔCD caused by the step d of the diffractive lens structure formed in the materials having the refractive indexes NBD, NDVD, and NCD, respectively, with respect to the wavelengths λBD, λDVD, and λCD of laser light for BD, DVD, and CD satisfy the following equations:
ΔBD=(NBD−1)d (1)
ΔDVD=(NDVD−1)d (2)
ΔCD=(NCD−1)d (3)
In the equations (1), (2), and (3), since d is a common value of a physical size of one of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure, from the equations (1) and (2), the following relationship is derived:
d=ΔBD/(NBD−1)=ΔDVD/(NDVD−1)
Then, if this equation is furthermodified, the difference in optical path length ΔDVD is represented by the following equation:
ΔDVD=(NDVD−1)/(NBD−1)×ΔBD (4)
Here, when the difference in optical path length caused by one of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure is FBD×λBD with respect to laser light for BD (where FBD is an integer number and is a diffraction order of diffracted light of laser light for BD), that is, when the following equation satisfies:
diffraction efficiency of FBD-order light with respect to laser light for BD becomes 100% in theory. At this time, from the equations (4) and (5), the difference in optical path length ΔDVD caused by the phase step with respect to the light source for DVD is represented by the following equation:
If this equation is modified, the following equation is obtained:
Accordingly, from diffracted light of laser light for DVD to be generated by such a diffractive lens structure, the diffraction order FDVD of diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency is represented by the following equation:
Here, ROUND [ ] is a so-called round-off function of rounding off the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number. Accordingly, at the time of design of the diffractive lens structure, when FBD-order light of laser light for BD is used, FDVD-order light of laser light for DVD satisfying the above-described equation is preferably used. Therefore, at the time of recording and reproducing of DVD, it is desirable to use FDVD-order light.
On the other hand, with respect to the light source for CD, from the above-described equations (1) and (3), the following relationship is derived:
Then, the difference in optical path length ΔCD is represented by the following equation:
If the equation (5) substitutes with this equation, the difference in optical path length with respect to the light source for CD caused by the phase step is represented by the following equation:
That is, the following equation is obtained:
Since the wavelength of the light source for BD and the wavelength of the light source for CD are 408 nm and 780 nm, respectively, and, in general, the shorter the wavelength is, the larger the refractive index of the optical material is, as for the optical material to be generally used, the following relationship is established:
That is, the ratio of the differences in optical path length caused by the phase steps in the light source for BD and the light source for CD substantially becomes 2:1. Accordingly, when the diffraction order FBD of BD is an even number, the difference in optical path length to be generated with respect to the light source for CD also substantially becomes an integer number, and thus the diffractive lens structure, which does not have the aberration correction effect on the light source for CD, can be designed. In this case, the diffraction order FCD of CD is determined by the following equation:
When the diffraction order FBD of BD is an odd number, the difference in optical path length to be generated with respect to the light source for CD is not an integer number, and thus the diffractive lens structure, which also has the aberration correction effect with respect to CD, can be designed. Since DVD or CD has a laser light transmissive layer thicker than that of BD, the signs of the spherical aberration to be corrected with respect to the objective lens for BD are the same in DVD and CD. Therefore, when the diffractive lens structure has the aberration correction effect on both DVD and CD, the spherical aberration correction effect of the phase step needs to be the same sign. That is, when the diffraction order FDVD used for DVD calculated by the above-described condition satisfies the following condition:
the following equation is obtained:
Here, since the amount of the aberration correction by the phase step with respect to laser light for DVD is positive, FCD-order light, which is calculated by the following equation, is used, such that the amount of the aberration correction by the phase step with respect to laser light for CD is positive:
Here, CEIL [ ] is a function of rounding-up the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number.
Further, when the diffraction order FDVD satisfies the following condition:
the following equation is obtained:
Here, since the amount of the aberration correction by the phase step with respect to laser light for DVD is negative, FCD-order light, which is calculated by the following equation, is used, such that the amount of the aberration correction by the phase step with respect to laser light for CD is negative:
Here, FLOOR [ ] is a function of rounding-down the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number. In this case, there is a case in which the following relationship is not established:
That is, when FBD is an odd number, from diffracted light having the spherical aberration correction effect of the same sign as that of DVD, FCD-order light of laser light for CD has the maximum diffraction efficiency, but diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency from diffracted light to be generated is not limited.
In such a manner, the combination of the diffraction orders for BD, DVD, and CD shown in Table 2 can be obtained. As for the eleventh or more diffraction orders of BD, the combination of Table 2 is repeated.
Moreover, in Table 2, a specified design condition, which has diffraction efficiency of 100% in theory with respect to laser light for BD is described such that the optimum combination of the diffraction orders or the amount of the aberration correction by one phase step can be intuitively understood. However, in the actual diffractive lens structure, the amount of the aberration correction is determined only by the distribution of the plurality of phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure and a macroscopic aspherical shape. Therefore, actually, even when the phase step amount is designed such that diffraction efficiency of laser light for BD is not 100%, if the diffractive lens structure is designed so as not to have the aberration correction effect with respect to BD, each of the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure has the amount of the aberration correction shown in Table 2 with respect to laser light for DVD and laser light for CD. That is, when only the phase step amount changes, in Table 2, only diffraction efficiency of BD/DVD/CD changes. Further, the amount of the aberration correction or diffraction efficiency described in Table 2 is a schematic value given as an example so as to determine the diffraction order to be used all the way for reference. The distribution of the phase steps of the actual diffractive lens structure, that is, the height from the optical axis of each of the phase steps, is designed by use of a design method, such as a phase function method or the like. Further, with the relationship between the refractive index of the material to be used and the wavelength, diffraction efficiency of BD/DVD/CD is slightly different. Accordingly, in order to estimate accurate diffraction efficiency, the refractive index property of the material to be actually used needs to be considered.
EXAMPLE 1 In general, a diffractive lens structure used for the optical disc has a plurality of concentric minute phase steps, and controls the wavefront of light by use of diffraction of light by the phase steps. As a method of designing such a diffractive lens structure, the phase function method is used. In the phase function method, an infinitely thin phase object is assumed on a surface where the diffractive lens structure is formed, and the aberration is calculated by adding the phase, which is given through a phase function ψ(h) represented by the following equation, with respect to a light beam passing through the distance (height) h from the optical axis. Here, dor is a diffraction order, and λ0 is a designed wavelength.
Here, the phase function ψ(h) is arranged as the following equation, and Δ(h) is referred to as a diffractive lens function.
The height from the optical axis of each of the plurality of phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure is obtained by calculating h when the diffraction lens function becomes an integer number.
As shown in
In the diffractive optical element of Example 1, as shown in
The aberration caused by the diffractive optical element is the sum of an aberration caused by a macroscopic aspherical shape, in which the diffractive lens structure is formed, and an aberration caused by the phase step formed in the diffractive lens structure. In the present example, since the diffractive optical element and the objective lens for BD are incorporated, the diffractive optical element is designed so as to cancel the aberration caused by the macroscopic aspherical shape and the aberration caused by the phase step each other, such that the aberration in the diffractive optical element does not occur with respect to laser light for BD.
The diameters of outermost phase steps from the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1) and the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2), which are effective diameters of the individual diffractive lens structures, are referred to as φ(1) and φ(2) (the fourth diffraction effective diameter and the second diffraction effective diameter), respectively. The effective diameter φ(1) (the fourth diffraction effective diameter) of the diffractive lens structure 1 is smaller than the CD effective diameter φ(CD) (the third diffraction effective diameter) in the diffractive optical element, and the effective diameter φ(2) (the second diffraction effective diameter) of the diffractive lens structure 2 is equal to the DVD effective diameter φ(DVD) in the diffractive optical element. The BD effective diameter φ(BD) (the first diffraction effective diameter) is the maximum. The specified numerical values (mm) are shown in Table 4. Moreover, φ(DOE1) represents φ(1), and φ(DOE2) represents φ(2).
In the diffractive lens structure 1 and the diffractive lens structure 2, the diffraction orders to be used in BD are different. The diffractive lens structure lhas the spherical aberration correction effect on both DVD and CD, and the diffractive lens structure 2 has the spherical aberration correction effect only on DVD and does not have the spherical aberration correction effect on CD.
Hereinafter, the individual diffractive lens structures will be described in detail.
(For Diffractive Lens Structure 1 (Region 1))
The diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1) performs the spherical aberration correction on both DVD and CD. The ratio of the spherical aberrations to be generated when DVD and CD are reproduced by the objective lens used in Example 1 is as shown in a spherical aberration graph for DVD and CD of
Table 5 shows the diffraction orders of DVD and CD with respect to the diffraction order of the diffractive lens structure to be used for BD, the amount of the aberration correction by the phase step, and diffraction efficiency.
Moreover, diffraction efficiency shown in Table 5 is an example when the diffractive lens structure is blazed such that diffraction efficiency with respect to the light source for BD becomes one. As for actual design, by changing the phase step amount, as described below, design can be achieved in consideration of the balance of diffraction efficiency among BD, DVD, and CD, and thus diffraction efficiency of the diffractive lens structure is not limited to the numerical values of Table 5.
As the diffraction order of DVD, when the diffractive lens structure is blazed such that diffraction efficiency of BD becomes 100%, an order in which the maximum diffraction efficiency with respect to laser light for DVD is obtained is selected.
As the diffraction order of CD, when the spherical aberration correction effect of the same sign as that of DVD is present, a diffraction order in which the maximum diffraction efficiency among them is obtained is selected. The reason that the sign of the amount of the aberration correction of DVD and the sign of the amount of the aberration correction of CD are tuned to each other is because the sign of the spherical aberration to be corrected when the objective lens for BD is used is the same.
The amount of the aberration correction is avalue obtained by substituting the phase difference occurring between adjacent orbicular zone-shaped surfaces divided by the phase steps constituting the diffractive lens structure with the difference in optical path length. As for the eleventh or more diffraction order of BD, the combination of Table 5 is repeated.
As apparent from Table 5, since the combination in which the ratio of the aberration correction effects in DVD and CD becomes 3:5 does not exist, a combination of the amounts of the spherical aberration correction close to that combination was used. Then, in consideration of the height of diffraction efficiency of DVD, the combination of a column indicated by Structure 1 of Table 5, that is, third-order diffracted light in BD and second-order diffracted light in DVD and CD, was used.
Hereinafter, the mode of the aberration correction by the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1) will be described.
The diffractive lens structure 1 uses third-order diffracted light in BD and second-order diffracted light in DVD and CD, and is designed such that the spherical aberration with respect to CD substantially becomes zero, without having influence on the wavefront aberration of BD
As shown in
In the diffractive lens structure set in such a manner, when laser light for DVD is used, as shown in
When laser light for CD is used, as shown in
As such, the differences in optical path length occurring between the adjacent orbicular zones of the diffractive lens structure is different according to the wavelength, and thus the spherical aberration can be corrected by use of the difference between the added differences in optical path length.
In the present example, in the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1), the diffractive lens structure is designed such that the spherical aberrations of BD and CD become zero, and thus a slight aberration with respect to DVD remains. By the way, the amount of the spherical aberration caused by the difference in thickness of the transmissive protection layers (substrates) is increased in proportion to the fourth power of the numerical aperture. In view of this situation, if the diffraction effective diameter to be corrected can be made small, and the numerical aperture can be made small, the residual spherical aberration in DVD can be made small. However, when the effective diameter is simply made small, the numerical aperture with respect to CD is insufficient, which causes a trouble. Accordingly, in general, the diffractive lens structure 1 needs to be provided on the entire surface of the effective diameter tobe corrected. In contrast, in the present example, at the time of design of the diffractive lens structure 1, the image surface position of laser light for CD is determined according to the conditions described below, and thus the configuration was implemented in which the diffractive lens structure 1 does not need to be provided on the entire surface of the CD effective diameter.
By designing the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1) having such a configuration, the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 1 can be limited to the minimum. Further, when the diffractive lens structure 1 optimal for BD and CD is used, the residual spherical aberration in DVD can be reduced. Actually, the effective diameter φ(1) of the diffractive lens structure 1 is about 79% of the CD effective diameter φ(CD), and thus the residual spherical aberration amount can be reduced up to about 39% as compared with the case in which the diffractive lens structure 1 is provided on the entire surface of the effective diameter.
Moreover, in case of calculating the aberration using phase function coefficients suggested as the example, the phase shift between the wavefront inside the height φ(1)/2 and the wavefront outside the height φ(1)/2 occurs. However, in case of acquiring an actual shape from the diffraction lens function, the value of a constant term d0 of the phase function or the step amount in the vicinity of a boundary portion is fine-adjusted, such that the phase shift is corrected. Therefore, it does not matter. In consideration of such correction, the calculation of the aberration is performed in a state in which the constant term of the phase function dO is provisionally set to 1.4563050E-05 at the time of DVD and −8.715200E-04 at the time of CD, andthe phases of the individual regions are tuned to one another. In case of acquiring the shape of the actual diffractive lens structure, the values of dO are not used. In the examples described below, in case of calculating the aberration in the phase function method, a provisional value of d0 is suitably set such that the phase sift between the individual regions is not generated.
Subsequently, the process of acquiring the shape of the actual diffractive lens structure 1 from the diffractive lens function of the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1) will be described.
Next, design of a microscopic shape of a diffractive lens structure will be described.
The diffractive lens function of the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1) is monotonically increased, and thus the diffractive lens structure 1 is blazed from the macroscopic spherical shape in a direction to be made thicker as it goes from the inner circumferential portion of the diffractive lens structure toward the outer circumferential portion. Further, at theheights h1 to h8 fromthe optical axiswhere the diffractive lens function is the integer number, the steps are formed in a direction in which the lens is to be made thinner.
With respect to laser light for BD, it is designed such that the aberration caused by the macroscopic aspherical shape of the diffractive lens structure and the aberration caused by the phase step cancel each other. Accordingly, as shown in
In such a case, however, diffraction efficiency of second-order diffracted light with respect to laser light for CD is only about 40% and first-order diffracted light, which becomes stray light, is about 40%, so it is not preferable.
By the way, the aberration correction characteristic of the diffractive lens structure is determined only by the macroscopic aspherical shape of the diffractive lens structure and the height from the optical axis where the phase step is formed. Then, by changing only the phase step amount, not the macroscopic aspherical shape and the heights of the phase steps from the optical axis, diffraction efficiency can be adjusted, without changing the characteristic as the lens. In addition, in the example, in order to reduce stray light while enhancing diffraction efficiency of CD, the value of the phase step d is made deeper than the depth given by an equation of
As described above, it has been studied that the effective diameter φ(1) of the diffractive lens structure 1 is made smaller than the CD effective diameter φ(CD) in order to reduce the residual spherical aberration in DVD. In this case, as described above, when diffraction efficiency of BD in the diffractive lens structure 1 is decreased, the occupied ratio of the diffractive lens structure 1 is made small, such that the reduction in diffraction efficiency is suppressed small as a whole. That is, by making the effective diameter φ(1) of the diffractive lens structure 1 small, secondarily, the reduction of light utilization efficiency of BD caused by the balance of diffraction efficiency could be suppressed.
(For Diffractive Lens Structure 2 (Region 2))
In the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2), by using the combination of a column indicated by structure 2 of Table 6 described below, second-order diffracted light in BD, and first-order diffracted light in DVD and CD, design is implemented such that the spherical aberration with respect to DVD substantially becomes zero, without having influence on the wavefront aberrations of BD and CD.
Hereinafter, the mode of the aberration correction in the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2) will be described.
As shown in
In the diffractive lens structure set in such a manner, when laser light for DVD is used, the wavelength of light extends and the refractive index of the material is decreased, such that the difference in optical path length occurring between adjacent orbicular zone-shaped surfaces becomes about 1.2λ, as shown in
When laser light for CD is used, as shown in
As such, in the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2), the difference in optical path length is added only to laser light for DVD by the phase step, and the difference in optical path length is not newly added to laser light for BD and laser light for CD. That is, the diffractive lens structure 2 can have the aberration correction effect only on laser light for DVD.
At the time of design of the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2), the best image surface position of laser light for DVD is set to the best image surface position of light passing through inside the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1).
Subsequently, the process of acquiring the shape of the actual diffractive lens structure 2 from the diffractive lens function of the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2) will be described.
The shape of the diffractive lens structure 2 can be acquired, like the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1). In this case, however, the shape needs to be designed while its phase is corrected to tune to the wavefront passing through the diffractive lens structure 1. First, the provisional shapes of the diffractive lens structure 1 and the diffractive lens structure 2 are acquired by use of the macroscopic aspherical shapes and the phase function coefficients suggested as the example. After the shapes are acquired in such a manner, the wavefront aberrations of BD, DVD, and CD are calculated, and the calculation results are shown in
In the wavefront aberrations of BD and CD, a serrate wave-shaped wavefront aberration exists within the effective diameter φ(1) of the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1). This is because, in consideration of the balance of diffraction efficiency of BD and CD, the difference in optical path length caused by the phase step is slightly shifted from the integer multiple of the wavelength, and the shift amount appears as the step of the wavefront aberration. Similarly, in the wavefront aberration of DVD, a serrate wave-shaped wavefront aberration exists in the wavefront passing through between the height φ(1)/2 from the optical axis and the height φ(2)/2 to which the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2) is provided, but, the difference in optical path length caused by the phase step with respect to laser light for DVD is 1.2λ, which is slightly more than 1λ, such that the shift amount appears as the step of the wavefront aberration.
Actually, even when such a serrate wave-shaped wavefront aberration exists, a bad influence on a spot shape almost not exists, and unnecessary diffracted light is generated a little, such that it does not matter. However, in view of phase tuning of the individual regions, attention needs to be paid. That is, in order to tune the phase with the serrate wave-shaped wavefront, the phase needs to be tuned to the average value of the wavefront.
As shown in
Such a phase shift can be tuned by adjusting the phase step amount in the vicinity of the boundary portion. In a state in which the value of the constant term d0 of the diffractive lens function is maintained with zero, as shown in
Moreover, the phase shift may be tuned by adjusting the value of the constant term d0 of the diffractive lens function (dotted line), as shown in
Table 7 is paraxial data of a specified design result of Example 1.
Moreover, a surface number is defined by a light incident sequence, as shown in
Table 8 shows aspherical coefficients representing the macroscopic aspherical shapes of the diffractive lens structures and the aspherical shape of the objective lens in the design result of Example 1.
Moreover, the aspherical shape is defined as shown in
Table 9 and 10 are the phase function coefficients of the diffractive lens structure and the diffraction order to be used(λ0=408 nm)
The phase function is represented by the following equation.
Here, h represents the height from the optical axis, ψ(h) represents a phase amount to be given to a light beam passing through the height h from the optical axis on the surface on which the diffractive lens structure is provided, dor represents the diffraction order to be used, andko is the designedwavelength, λ0=408 nm.
Table 11 shows diffractive lens structure shape data representing a specified shape of the diffractive lens structure in Example 1 which is acquired from macroscopic aspherical data of the diffractive lens structure 1 (region 1) and the diffractive lens structure 2 (region 2) and the diffractive lens function.
The diffractive lens structure of Example 1 has 34 phase steps, and a central surface, orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 34, that is is, 33 orbicular zone surfaces in total, and an outer circumferential surface (region 3), all of which are divided by the phase steps.
As for the phase steps 1 to 7 constituting the diffractive lens structure of Example 1, the depth was determined in consideration of the balance of diffraction efficiency in BD and diffraction efficiency in CD, the aspherical surface of each of the central surface and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 8 is an aspherical shape shown in Table 12. That is, the central surface disposed on the optical axis has the aspherical shape shown in Table 12, and each of the orbicular zone shapes 2 to 8 is an orbicular zone-shaped surface in which the aspherical surface shown in Table 12 is shifted in the optical axis direction by the amount according to the step amount.
The phase step 8 is set to be slightly deeper than the phase steps 1 to 7 such that the phase of the wavefront passing through each region is arranged. All of the orbicular zone surfaces 9 to 34 and the outer circumferential surface (region 3) disposed outside the phase step 8 are planes perpendicular to the optical axis.
From
Actually, in case of calculating an undulate-optical spot shape on an optical disc surface on the basis of the wavefront aberration, a favorable spot shape, which is substantially equal to a spot formed by a general aplanatic lens, is obtained.
Further, when light outside the DVD and CD effective diameters has influence on light-convergence, if a coma aberration is caused by, for example, a disc tilt, the change of the side robe is drastically present, as compared with a normal situation, and thus stable reproduction performance cannot be obtained. Then, when the lens of the present example is used, the change of the spot shape at the time of the disc tilt is calculated and is compared with the general lens. As for the calculation of the change of the spot shape, in order to take an influence of light outside the effective diameter into account, the calculation is performed by use of the effective diameter φ(BD) with respect to DVD and CD. As the values represent the spot shape, a full width at half maximum and a side-robe intensity shown in
Example 2 is also, like Example 1, a diffractive optical element that can record on and reproduce BD, the first optical data storage media; DVD, the second optical data storage media; and CD, the third optical data storage media; and combined with a double aspherical lens for BD. In addition, Example 2 is designed in consideration of the effect of chromatic aberration arising from slight wavelength variation of a light source.
In general, the wavelength of a light source such as a semiconductor laser that is used for an optical disc can be varied by temperature variation or power variation generated during recording and reproducing. As a result, the focal length of an objective lens varies, and spherical aberration occurs. The amount of wavefront aberration of the chromatic aberration arising from the wavelength variation increases with the numerical aperture of a lens. If the wavelength is varied rapidly with operating variation such as recording to reproducing or reproducing to recording in pickup, spot stays in a defocus state until focus servo tracks the focus, thereby the operation becomes unstable. Furthermore, it is preferable that the aberration due to the wavelength variation be small since spherical aberration remains even after the focus servo tracks the focus.
In general, the chromatic aberration is corrected by using a combination lens, which is made by combining two or more kinds of materials having refractive index varying with wavelength variation, or a diffractive lens structure.
When a diffractive lens structure, the characteristics of which varies with region like Example 1, is used, chromatic aberration varies with regions, therefore the whole wavefront can become discontinuous, and when the combination lens is used, the surface shape of the combination lens needs to be discontinuous. In the latter case, although resin materials need to be used since glass is hard to fabricate, there are fewer kinds of resin materials that can be used as optical parts for optical discs than those of glass, thereby the combination of two kinds of resin materials, the refractive index of which varies considerably with wavelength variation, cannot be obtained.
Therefore, it is desirable to use a diffractive optical element in order to correct the chromatic aberration of the objective lens including the diffractive optical element of Example 1. Meanwhile, since the chromatic aberration of the objective lens including the diffractive optical element of Example 1 becomes discontinuous, the diffractive optical element also has discontinuous characteristics in order to correct the aberration.
As described above, when two optical elements, the chromatic aberrations of which become discontinuous, are combined to an optical system, if optical axis is shifted between the both, the discontinuous aberration characteristics cannot be combined well, and the aberration correction is hindered. Therefore, it is required to decrease the optical axis shift of the diffractive optical elements as mush as possible. In addition, when optical axis is shifted between the spherical aberration correction diffractive optical element of Example 1 and the BD optical lens, a great amount of coma aberration occurs on DVD and CD, thereby it is also required to decrease the optical axis shift between the spherical aberration correction diffractive optical element of Example 1 and the BD optical lens as much as possible. That is, the three parts, that is, spherical aberration correction diffractive optical element, chromatic aberration correction diffractive optical element, and objective lens, need to be disposed to suppress the optical axis shift sufficiently. Sincethe objective lens of an optical disc is constructed to tracking-bias from an actuator in the perpendicular direction to the optical axis in order to track the eccentricity of the optical disc, the diffractive optical elements need to be mounted on the actuator and tracking-biased in conjunction with the objective lens.
Considering the above, the spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structure and the chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure of DVD or CD are formed at the same optical element in Example 2. When the diffractive optical elements constructed like the above are mounted on the actuator with the objective lens, optical axis is not shifted even when the objective lens tracking-biases. In addition, it is preferable to integrate the spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structure with the chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure, since the number of parts can be decreased, and thus the simplification and cost-down of the optical system can be achieved.
As shown in
The diffractive optical element has the diffractive lens structure A, which is designed to correct the spherical aberration occurring among BD, DVD and CD and to control the opening, on the left-side surface (first surface) of
The effective diameters φ(B1), φ(B2) and φ(B3) of the chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structures B1 (Region 1), B2 (Region 2) and B3 (Region 3) are determined respectively according to the diameters of the wavefronts having penetrated the diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1) of a surface, on which the spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structure is executed, the wavefront having penetrated the diffractive lens structure A2 (Region 2) and the wavefront having penetrated the outer circumferential portion, on which the diffractive lens structure is not executed.
The combination of the diffraction orders used in the diffractive lens structures A1 (Region 1) and A2 (Region 2) is determined in the same way as Example 1. That is, the combinations of the columns denoted structures A1 and A2 in Table 14, that is, second-order diffractive light for BD, first-order diffractive light for DVD and CD; and third-order diffractive light for BD, second-order diffractive light for DVD and CD are used.
Basically, the diffractive lens structure A is designed in the same sequence as Example 1. However, since the diffractive lens structure B is combined in designing using phase functions, and thus the tendency of aberration varies slightly, it is required to combine the diffractive lens structure B and then design the diffractive lens structure A.
The chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure B corrects only chromatic aberration, thereby the chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure B needs to be designed to offset aberration due to the macroscopic aspherical surface shape with aberration due to phase steps for all of BD, DVD and CD. Therefore, the combination of diffraction orders shown in the column ‘structure B’ in Table 14, that is, tenth-order diffraction light for BD, sixth-order diffraction light for DVD, and fifth-order diffraction light for CD, is used as the combination of the diffraction orders used in the diffractive lens structures B1 (Region 1), B2 (Region 2), and B3 (Region 3). If the above combination of diffraction order is employed, a diffractive lens structure correcting the chromatic aberration at BD and not correcting aberration at all of BD, DVD and CD can be obtained. Furthermore, it is preferable that the chromatic aberration be small, however, small chromatic aberration requires a great number of phase steps, and thus the diffractive lens structure B is hard to fabricate. Therefore, in Example 2, the chromatic aberration is not corrected completely. When the diffractive lens structure B is used in the BD objective lens unit used in Example 2, the optimal image surface position varies about 5 μm, and 0.07 λrms of spherical aberration occurs if the wavelength is changed from 408 nm to 403 nm. On the other hand, when the diffractive optical element of Example 2 is added, the varying amount of the optimal image surface position when the wavelength is changed from 408 nm to 403 nm is suppressed 1.6 μm, and the residual spherical aberration at this time is suppressed 0.01 λrms or below. That is, it is possible to record on and reproduce BD more stably as well as to record on and reproduce DVD or CD by adding the diffractive optical element of Example 2.
These diffractive lens structures are designed by using the phase function method like Example 1, and the practical surface shape is designed by using the diffractive lens function extracted from the above.
Table 15 illustrates paraxial data, the specific design results of Example 2.
Table 16 illustrates aspherical surface coefficients representing the macroscopic aspherical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structures A and B, and the aspherical surface shape of the objective lens in Example 2.
Tables 17 and 18 illustrate the phase function coefficients of the diffractive lens structures A and B, and the diffraction orders to be used (λ0=408 nm).
The practical shape of the diffractive lens structure is extracted by using macroscopic aspherical surface shape, phase function coefficient and diffraction order like the above example. Since the shapes of the spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1) and the diffractive lens structure A2 (Region 2) are extracted in the same sequence as Example 1, the detailed description will be omitted.
Table 19 illustrates data representing specific shapes of the diffractive lens structure A in Example 2.
The diffractive lens structure A of Example 2 is composed of 34 phase steps; central surfaces divided from the steps; total 33 orbicular zone surfaces, that is, orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 34; and outer circumferential surface (Region 3).
In the diffractive lens structure A of Example 2, the phases of the wavefronts penetrating the diffractive lens structures 1 (Region 1) and 2 (Region 2) are fitted with each other for all of BD, DVD and CD by deepening the eighth phase step like Example 1.
In addition, in the diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1), the depth of the phase step is determined in consideration of the balance between the diffraction efficiencies for BD and CD, and the central surface and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 8 are shaped aspherical as illustrated in Table 20. That is, the central surface on the optical axis is the aspherical surface shape illustrated in Table 20, and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 8 are orbicular zone surfaces, in which the aspherical surfaces illustrated in Table 20 are shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective step amount. The orbicular zone surfaces 9 to 34 and the outer circumferential surface (Region 3), located outside the eighth phase step, are all planes perpendicular to the optical axis.
Hereinafter, the procedure of extracting the shape of the chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure B will be described.
Next, the design of the microscopic shape of the diffractive lens structure will be described.
Since the diffractive lens function of the diffractive lens structure B decreases monotonously, the diffractive lens structure Bl gets blazed in a direction, in which the diffractive lens structure B gets thinner by the macroscopic aspherical shape from the inner circumference to the outer circumference of the diffractive lens structure, and phase steps are formed at the heights from the optical axis hB1 to hB7, at which the diffractive lens functions become integers, in a direction, in which the lens gets thicker.
The diffractive lens structure B1 is designed to generate tenth-order light to the BD light source and to negate the aberration generated by the macroscopic aspherical surface shape and the aberration generated by the phase steps at the referential wavelength. When the phase step amount d composing the diffractive lens structure B is set as shown in
In addition, since the optical path length differences generated at the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure B1 become about 6 λDVD for DVD laser and about 5 λCD for CD laser, the aberration due to the macroscopic aspherical surface and the aberration due to the phase step are almost negated like BD case, and the theoretical diffraction efficiency of sixth-order diffraction light for DVD laser and fifth diffraction light for CD laser become almost 100%.
Although the shapes of the diffractive lens structures B2 (Region 2) and B3 (Region 3) are extracted in the same sequence, phase differences can occur among the wavefronts having penetrated the respective diffractive lens structures when the wavelength of the laser varies, and, in this case, it can be considered to adjust the values at the integer terms d0 of the diffractive lens functions so as to shift the phase steps to the inner or outer circumference entirely or to adjust the values with the step amount in the vicinity of the border, at which phase differences occur. In the chromatic aberration diffractive lens structure B of Example 2, the values are adjusted by making the integer term d0 of the diffractive lens structure B2 (Region 2) 0.0002856.
Table 21 illustrates data representing the specific shapes of the diffractive lens structure B in Example 2.
The diffractive lens structure B of Example 2 is composed of 37 phase steps, central surfaces divided from the steps, total 36 orbicular zone surfaces, that is, orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 37, and the outer circumferential surface (Region 3).
FIGS. 65 to 67 are wavefront aberrations calculated from the practical shape data of the diffractive lens structures and show the phases of the wavefronts inside the effective diameter for all of BD, DVD and CD. Like Example 1, saw-like aberrations exist in the wavefronts, however, they have no bad effect on the spot shapes, thereby they can be ignored.
FIGS. 68 to 73 are graphs showing the wave-optic spot shapes calculated by using the aberration due to the practical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structures, in which the ordinate represents the optical strength and the abscissa represents the radius. FIGS. 68 to 70 show the whole spot shapes at BD, DVD and CD respectively, and FIGS. 71 to 73 show the side robe of the spots at BD, DVD and CD respectively. In the light-converging spot of BD, the main spot is slightly smaller and the side robe is slightly larger than those of a normal lens. The above fact is due to the apodization effect generated by the diffraction efficiency slightly dropping in the diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1), however, no troubles occur in recording and reproducing with that degree. In addition, since the intensity of the semiconductor laser used as a light source decreases from center to periphery, it can be preferable to drop the efficiency at the inner circumferential portion so as to generate the apodization effect. Regarding DVD or CD, the spot shapes are calculated in consideration of light outside the respective effective diameters, but the spot shapes are almost the same as those of the normal objective lens.
FIGS. 74 to 77 are graphs showing the calculation result of the spot shape variation to disc tilt.
FIGS. 78 to 80 show the wavefront aberration shapes at the optimal image surfaces when the wavelength variation of the light source occurs in the objective lens module of Example 2. Meanwhile, the materials for the diffractive optical element and the objective lens have the refractive index varying with the wavelength variation as shown in Table 22.
It can be understood from the wavefront aberration drawings that only slight saw-like wavefront aberration occurs, and the wavefront shapes rarely deteriorate even when +5 nm of wavelength variation occurs. As described above, the saw-like wavefront aberration has no bad effect on the spot shapes.
FIGS. 81 to 84 are graphs showing the spot shapes of BD at the wavelengths of 403 nm and 413 nm, in which the spot shapes at the design wavelength of 408 nm are overlapped for comparison. The ordinate represents the light intensity, and the abscissa represents the radius.
As described above, the lens of Example 2 can record on and reproduce BD, DVD and CD and shows more stable performance to wavelength variation than the objective lens unit for BD.
Meanwhile, in Example 2, two kinds of spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structures are formed at the diffractive lens structure A and three kinds of chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structures are formed at the diffractive lens structure B, however, they can be employed at any surfaces.
Meanwhile, the modified example shown in
Example 3 is also, like Example 2, a diffractive optical element that can record on and reproduce BD, DVD and CD. In addition, the diffractive optical element of Example 3 is designed in consideration of the effect of the chromatic aberration due to the slight wavelength variation of the light source.
Table 23 illustrates the composition of the lens system and the design conditions for BD, DVD and CD in Example 3.
In Example 2, the diffractive lens structures are formed on both surfaces of the diffractive optical element. However, in this case, since the diffractive lens structures are formed at both surfaces of the element, two high-precision molds including finephase steps are required, and thus the cost rises. Therefore, in Example 3, all diffractive lens structures are formed at a single surface as shown in
In order to realize the above composition, it is enough to extract the practical shapes of the spherical and chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structures and to fit them with each other geometrically.
However, when a plurality of diffractive lens structures is overlaid at the same surface, the number of the phase steps can increase or the intervals among the phase steps can decrease considerably. It is not preferable that the number of the phase steps increase since diffraction efficiency deteriorates substantially as described below. That is, when the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure are fabricated, fabrication errors such as edge Roundness or wall surface slope shown in the cross-sectional shapes of
Therefore, in Example 3, the deterioration of the diffraction efficiency due to the fabrication errors is prevented by synthesizing adjacent phase steps among the phase steps due to the spherical and chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structures.
The designing sequence of the diffractive lens structure of Example 3 is as follows: first, the phase functions of the spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structure A and the chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure B are set, and then their phase function coefficients are optimized. The spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structure A is imagined to have a BD, DVD and CD compatible diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1) inside the effective diameter φ (A1) smaller than the effective diameter of CD and the diffractive lens structure A2 (Region 2) correcting only spherical aberration for DVD inside the effective diameter of DVD at the outer circumferential portion thereof like Examples 1 and 2. The combinations of the diffraction order used in the diffractive lens structures A1 (Region 1) and A2 (Region 2) are identical to those of Examples 1 and 2. In addition, the chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure B is, like Example 2, composed of the diffractive lens structure B1 designed to correct the chromatic aberration generated when the diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1) and the objective lens are combined; the diffractive lens structure B2 designed to correct the chromatic aberration generated when the diffractive lens structure A2 (Region 2) and the objective lens are combined at the middle circumferential portion; and the objective lens structure B3 designed at the outer circumferential portion to correct the chromatic aberration of the objective lens.
The diffractive lens structures A and B are disposed at the surface, which the light of the diffractive optical element enters.
Table 24 illustrates paraxial data, the specific design results of Example 3.
Meanwhile, Table 24 illustrates the diffractive lens structure by using three surfaces from first to third surfaces, however, it is just the diffractive lens structure illustrated with design denotation, and when the practical surface shape is extracted, the design result of the three surfaces are synthesized and one surface shape is extracted.
Table 25 illustrates aspherical surface coefficients representing the macroscopic aspherical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structures B and A and the aspherical surface shape of the objective lens in Example 3.
Tables 26 and 27 are the phase function coefficients of the diffractive lens structures B and A and the diffraction orders to be used (λ0=408 nm).
When the practical shape of the diffractive lens structure is extracted, first, the shapes of the diffractive lens structures A and B are extracted respectively, and then the shapes are fitted with each other geometrically. Since the respective shapes of the diffractive lens structures can be extracted in the same sequence as Example 2, the detailed description will be omitted.
If the above diffractive lens structures are synthesized, the diffractive lens structure having the cross-sectional shape shown in
However, when two or more kinds of diffractive lens structures are synthesized as above, the intervals among phase steps composing the respective diffractive lens structure can be extremely narrow. It is not preferable that the intervals among phase steps become extremely narrow since the mold becomes hard to fabricate and release in shaping. In addition, it is well known that the diffraction efficiency remarkably deteriorates when the intervals among the phase steps are as ten times or less wide as the wavelength of the light to be used. In Example 3, light sources of 408 nm, 660 nm and 780 nm are used, thereby it is desirable that the intervals of the phase steps be ten times or less of 780nm, the longest wavelength, that is, 0.0078 nm or longer.
Table 28 illustrates data representing the shapes of the diffractive lens structure fabricated by synthesizing the diffractive lens structures B and A geometrically.
Data in the gray cells represent phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure B, and data in the white cells represent phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure A.
Table 29 illustrates data extracted from the above shape data, the orbicular zone widths of which representing the intervals between phase steps are 0.0078 mm or less. The narrow phase step intervals are not preferable since the diffractive lens structure is hard to fabricate, and the diffraction efficiency deteriorates.
Therefore, in Example 3, the orbicular zone widths are made 0.0078 mm or wider by synthesizing two phase steps extremely adjacent to each other.
Meanwhile, two phase steps can be synthesized by forming a phase step as wide as the amount of two phase steps at somewhere between the two synthesized phase steps or by forming a phase step as wide as the amount of two phase steps at one phase step position and removing the other phase step. In Example 3, the phase step composing the diffractive lens structure B is synthesized at the position of the phase step composing the diffractive lens structure A requiring high precision to the errors of phase step radius. Furthermore, for the phase steps other than those having extremely narrow intervals as above, the number of phase steps can be decreased from 70 to 49 by synthesizing all the phase steps, other than the phase steps having extremely small intervals, that can be synthesized on condition of no bad effect on the performance.
Table 30 illustrates the shape data of the diffractive lens structure in Example 3 obtained by the above design sequence. The data in grey cells represent synthesized phase steps.
Meanwhile, in the diffractive lens structure of Example 3, the phase step amount is determined in consideration of the balance between the diffraction efficiencies of BD and CD in the effective diameter φ (A1) like Examples 1 and 2, and, accordingly, the central surface and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 9 are shaped aspherical as shown in Table 31. That is, the central surface on the optical axis is shaped aspherical surface shown in Table 31, and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 9 are orbicular zone surfaces shown in Table 31, which are shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective step amount.
The orbicular zone surfaces 10 to 49 and the outer circumferential surface (Region 3) that are located outside the phase step 9 are all planes perpendicular to the optical axis.
As described above, the intervals among phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure of Example 3 can be made at least 0.0009 mm by synthesizing phase steps, and thus the diffractive lens structure having no large diffraction efficiency deterioration throughout the wavelength can be realized.
In addition, since the number of phase steps can be decreased as well as the intervals among phase steps are widened by synthesizing phase steps, substantial diffraction efficiency deterioration due to the fabrication errors of a mold or the like is minimized. Particularly, regarding the wall surface slope, the diffraction efficiency deteriorates further as steps are deep, however, in Example 3, since the signals of the steps of the diffractive lens structures A and B are opposite, the phase step amount of the diffractive lens structure B having a large phase step amount can be made shallow. As a result, 21 phase steps in grey cells of the shape data are preferable, since they are shallower than deep phase steps before synthesis.
Furthermore, if the opposite-direction phase steps are synthesized, fine protrusions or hollows are removed. In order to fabricate a mold for forming fine protrusions or hollows, the tip of processing machinery needs to be as fine as the fine protrusions or hollows. However, when the tip of the processing machinery is made fine, it becomes difficult to process a mold with high precision due to rigidity shortage. In addition, in the case of hollow mold, materials can stay in the hollow during shaping. As a result, a diffractive lens structure is not shaped satisfactorily, and the lifespan of the mold is shortened. Although the diffractive lens structure before phase step synthesis has the above disadvantages, the disadvantages can be solved by synthesizing phase steps having different depth directions in order to design the diffractive lens structure like Example 3. That is, the mold can be fabricated easily with high precision, shaped satisfactorily, and used for a longer time by employing the designing method of Example 3, thereby the high-quality and cost down of the diffractive optical element can be achieved.
FIGS. 92 to 94 show the wavefront aberration calculated from the shape data of Example 3. For all of BD, DVD and CD, the phases of the wavefronts are gathered in the respective effective diameters. Like Examples 1 or 2, saw-like aberrations exist in the wavefronts, however, they have no bad effect on the spot shapes, thereby they can be ignored.
FIGS. 95 to 100 are graphs showing the wave-optic spot shapes calculated by using the aberration due to the practical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structure, in which the ordinate represents the optical strength and the abscissa represents the radius. FIGS. 95 to 97 show the whole spot shapes at BD, DVD and CD respectively, and FIGS. 98 to 100 show the side robe of the spots at BD, DVD and CD respectively. The light-converging point of BD has a slightly smaller main spot and a slightly larger side robe than those of a normal lens. The above fact is due to the apodization effect generated by the dropping of the diffraction efficiency at the inner circumferential portion, however, no troubles occur on recording and reproducing with that degree. In addition, since the intensity of the semiconductor laser used as a light source decreases from center to periphery in general, it can be preferable to drop the efficiency at the inner circumferential portion so as to generate the apodization effect. Regarding DVD or CD, the spot shapes are calculated in consideration of light outside the respective effective diameters, however, the spot shapes become almost the same as those of the normal objective lens.
FIGS. 101 to 104 are graphs showing the calculation result of the spot shape variation to disc tilt.
FIGS. 105 to 107 show the wavefront aberration shapes at the optimal image surfaces when the wavelength variation of the light source occurs in the lens of Example 3. Meanwhile, the materials for the diffractive optical element and the objective lens have refractive index varying with the wavelength variation as shown in Table 22. It can be understood from the above wavefront aberration drawings that only slight saw-like wavefront aberration occurs, and the wavefront shapes rarely deteriorate even when ±5 nm of wavelength variation occurs. As described above, the saw-like wavefront aberration has no bad effect on the spot shapes.
FIGS. 108 to 111 show the spot shapes at the wavelengths of 403 nm and 413 nm comparing with the spot shapes at the design wavelength of 408 nm. It can be understood from the drawings that the spot shapes rarely deteriorate to ±5 nm of wavelength variation in the lens using the diffractive optical element of Example 3.
Example 4 is also, like Example 3, a diffractive optical element that can record on and reproduce BD, DVD and CD, and, additionally, Example 4 is designed in consideration of the effect of the chromatic aberration due to the slight wavelength variation of the light source.
The composition of the lens system is identical to that of Example 3, and Table 32 illustrates the design conditions for BD, DVD and CD.
In Example 4, by employing the combination of the diffraction orders, which is used in the diffractive lens structure A, different from those of the above examples as shown in Table 33, the chromatic aberration is corrected more efficiently with the small number of phase steps, and high-productivity shape is obtained, while Example 4 shows the same effects as those of Example 3. In the diffractive lens structure A, the combinations of columns structure A1 and A2 in Table 33 such as seventh-order light for BD, fourth-order light for DVD and third-order light for CD; and sixth-order for BD, fourth-order light for DVD and third-order light for CD are used. In the diffractive lens structure B, the combination of column structure B in Table 33 such as tenth-order light for BD, sixth-order light for DVD and fifth-order light for CD is used. The design sequence is identical to that of Example 3.
Table 34 illustrates paraxial data, the specific design results of Example 4. Meanwhile, although Table 34 illustrates the diffractive lens structure by using three surfaces, that is, the first to third surfaces, Table 34 is just the diffractive lens structure with design denotation, and when the practical surface shape is extracted, a surface shape is extracted by synthesizing the design result of the above three surfaces.
Table 35 illustrates aspherical surface coefficients representing the macroscopic aspherical surface shape of the diffractive lens structures B and A and the aspherical surface shape of the objective lens in Example 4.
Tables 36 and 37 are the phase function coefficients of the diffractive lens structures B and A and the diffraction orders to be used (λ0=408 nm).
The diffractive lens structures A1 and A2 of Example 4 monotonously decrease within the height range from the optical axis formed respectively. Therefore, the practical shape of the diffractive lens structure A gets blazed in a direction, in which the diffractive lens structure A gets thinner by the macroscopic aspherical shape from the inner circumference to the outer circumference of the diffractive lens structure, and phase steps are formed at the heights from the optical axis h1 to h21, at which the diffractive lens function becomes integer, in a direction, in which the lens gets thicker.
Regarding the diffractive lens structure A1 (Region a), the depth of the phase step is determined in consideration of the balance between the diffraction efficiencies at BD and CD like the above examples, and the middle and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 9 are shaped aspherical illustrated in Table 38. That is, the central surface on the optical axis is the aspherical surface shape illustrated in Table 38, and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 8 are orbicular zone surfaces, in which the aspherical surfaces illustrated in Table 38 are shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective step amount.
In addition, if the diffraction order combination employed for the diffractive lens structure A2 (Region 2) in Example 4 is blazed in order to make the diffraction efficiency of BD 100% like the above examples, the diffraction efficiency of DVD decreases to be 57.3%. Therefore, in Example 4, the phase step amount and the surface shape of the diffractive lens structure A2 are changed like the diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1) in order to consider the balance between the diffraction efficiencies of BD and DVD.
Table 39 illustrates the aspherical surface shape data of the orbicular zone surfaces 10 to 21. That is, the orbicular zone surfaces 10 to 21 are aspherical surfaces shown in Table 39 shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective phase step amount.
In addition, since all the phases of the wavefront penetrating the diffractive lens structure A1 (Region 1), the wavefront penetrating the diffractive lens structure A2 (Region 2) and the wavefront penetrating the region, to which the diffractive lens structure is not applied are gathered, the depths of the phase steps 9 and 21 existing on the respective borders can be adjusted, and the practical surface shape data of the diffractive lens structure A can be designed.
The shape data of the diffractive lens structure B can be designed in the same sequence as those of Examples 2 and 3, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.
The shape of the diffractive lens structure in Example 4 can be extracted by synthesizing the shapes of the diffractive lens structures B and A extracted as above.
Table 40 illustrates data representing the shapes of the diffractive lens structure that is fabricated by synthesizing the diffractive lens structures B and A geometrically.
Data in the gray cells represent phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure B, and data in the white cells represent phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure A. Like Example 3, substantial diffraction efficiency deterioration can be prevented, and diffractive lens structures having shapes preferable for mass production can be designed by synthesizing properly the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structures A and B so as to decrease the number of the phase steps.
The data of Table 41 are shape data of the diffractive lens structure in Example 4 obtained by the above sequence. The data in the grey cells illustrate the synthesized phase steps. As described above, the required number of steps can be reduced from 49 to 42 by synthesizing the steps properly so as to decrease the number of the phase step.
Table 42 illustrates data representing the aspherical surface shapes of the central surface and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 10 of the diffractive lens structure in Example 4. That is, the central surface on the optical axis is the aspherical surface shape illustrated in Table 42, and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 10 are orbicular zone surfaces, in which the aspherical surfaces illustrated in Table 42 are shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective step amount.
Table 43 illustrates data representing the aspherical surface shapes of the orbicular zone surfaces 11 to 24. That is, the orbicular zone surfaces 11 to 24 are orbicular zone surfaces, in which the aspherical surfaces illustrated in Table 43 are shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective step amount.
The orbicular zone surfaces 25 to 42 and the outer circumferential surface (Region 3) that are located outside the twenty fourth phase step are planes perpendicular to the optical axis.
FIGS. 118 to 120 show the wavefront aberration calculated from the shape data of Example 3 (the conditions are identical to those of the above examples). For all of BD, DVD and CD, the phases of the wavefronts inside the respective effective diameters are gathered. Although saw-like aberrations exist in the wavefronts, they have no bad effect on the spot shapes, thereby they can be ignored.
FIGS. 121 to 126 are graphs showing the wave-optic spot shapes calculated by using the aberration due to the practical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structure (the conditions are identical to those of the above examples). For DVD or CD, the spot shapes are calculated in consideration of light outside the respective effective diameters. For all of BD, DVD and CD, the spot shapes that are almost as good as those when light are collected by normal objective lens can be obtained.
FIGS. 127 to 130 are graphs showing the calculation result of the spot shape variation to disc tilt (the conditions are identical to those of the above examples). It can be understood that a reproducing-characteristic as stable as that when conventional DVD and CD objective lens are used can be obtained, in particular, with no control of numeric aperture when the objective lens of the example is used since the diffractive lens structure shows almost the same characteristics as those of the normal lens to any one of DVD and CD.
FIGS. 131 to 133 show the wavefront aberration shapes at the optimal images when the wavelength variation of the light source occurs in the objective lens module of Example 4 (the conditions are identical to those of the above examples). Meanwhile, the materials for the diffractive optical element and the objective lens are those that vary with the wavelength variation as shown in Table 22. It can be understood from the above wavefront aberration drawings that only slight saw-like wavefront aberration occurs, and the wavefront shapes rarely deteriorate even when ±5 nm of wavelength variation occurs. As described above, the saw-like wavefront aberration has no bad effect on the spot shapes.
FIGS. 134 to 137 show the spot shapes at the wavelengths of 403 nm and 413 nm comparing with the spot shapes at the design wavelength of 408 nm (the conditions are identical to those of the above examples). It can be understood from the drawings that the spot shapes rarely deteriorate to the ±5 nm of wavelength variation in the lens using the diffractive optical element of Example 4.
Example 5 is also, like Example 1, a diffractive optical element that can record on and reproduce BD, the first optical data storage media; DVD, the second optical data storage media; and CD, the third optical data storage media; and combined with a double aspherical lens for BD. Table 44 illustrates the composition of the lens system and the design conditions for BD, DVD and CD.
As shown in
Meanwhile, the diffractive optical element of Example 5 includes, different from Example 1, no chromatic aberration correction diffractive lens structure and is composed of only spherical aberration correction diffractive lens structure.
Region 1 is the region of the inner circumferential portion inside the fourth effective diameter as shown in
The diffractive lens structures 1 to 3 employ the combinations of the diffraction order like columns structures 1 to 3 in Table 45.
Since the diffractive lens structure 1 of Example 5 does not correct the aberration of BD light source, but corrects the aberrations of DVD and CD light sources, the diffractive lens structure 1 uses third-order light for BD and second-order light for DVD and CD, and is designed to correct aberration for CD. Although the diffractive lens structure 1 corrects the aberration for DVD, it cannot correct the aberration completely.
Since the diffractive lens structure 2 of Example 5 does not correct the aberration of BD and CD light sources, but corrects the aberrations of DVD light source only, the diffractive lens structure 2 uses second-order light for BD and first-order light for DVD and CD, and is designed to correct aberration for DVD.
Since the diffractive lens structure 3 of Example 5 does not correct the aberration of BD and CD light sources, but corrects the aberrations of DVD light source only, the diffractive lens structure 3 uses second-order light for BD and first-order light for DVD and CD, and is designed to correct aberration for DVD, which the diffractive lens structure 1 does not correct completely.
Since the image surface position of CD in designing the diffractive lens structure 1 is set in the same way as Example 1, it is possible to set the size of the fourth effective diameter, the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 1, smaller than the third-order effective diameter corresponding the effective diameter of CD in the diffractive optical element.
In the design of the diffractive lens structure 2 in Example 5, different from the above examples, it is devised that the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 2 can be made the fifth diffractive effective diameter smaller than the second diffractive effective diameter corresponding the effective diameter of DVD in the diffractive optical element. That is, as shown in
Table 46 illustrates paraxial data, that is, the specific design results of Example 5.
Meanwhile, although Table 46 illustrates the diffractive lens structure by using five surfaces, that is, the first to fifth surfaces, Table 46 is just the diffractive lens structure with design denotation, and when the practical surface shape is extracted, a surface shape is extracted by synthesizing the design result of the above five surfaces. Table 47 illustrates the macroscopic aspherical surface shape of the diffractive lens structures 1 to 3 and the aspherical surface shape of the objective lens in Example 5.
Tables 48 and 49 are the phase function coefficients of the diffractive lens structures 1 to 3 and the diffraction orders to be used (λ0=408 nm).
Hereinafter, the procedure extracting the shape of the diffractive lens structure will be described.
In extracting the practical shape of the diffractive lens structure, first, the respective practical shapes of the diffractive lens structures 1 to 3 are extracted by using the diffractive lens function, the macroscopic aspherical surface shape and the diffraction order to be used. That is, like the above examples, the height from the optical axis, at which the diffractive lens functions become integers, is extracted, and then phase steps having proper direction and depth are formed to generate a given diffractive light at the height on the macroscopic aspherical surface. Furthermore, these practical shapes are geographically fitted with one another to be a synthesized surface.
Hereinafter, the specific procedure will be described.
Regarding how to extract the practical shape of the diffractive lens structure 1, since the diffractive lens structure 1 of Example 1 is equal to the design result, and the practical shape is extracted in the same way, the detailed description will be omitted.
Next, the method of extracting the practical shape of the diffractive lens structure 2 will be described.
Next, the method of extracting the practical shape of the diffractive lens structure 3 will be described.
If the specific shapes of the diffractive lens structures 1 to 3 are extracted respectively as described above, the surfaces are synthesized into one surface. Since the diffractive lens structures 1 and 3 are formed at the common region, when the two diffractive lens structures are synthesized, like Example 3 or 4, the diffractive lens structure, the diffraction efficiency of which does not deteriorate across the whole wavelength by synthesizing all the synthesizable phase steps on condition that there is no bad effect on the performance can be realized.
In addition, it is preferable to synthesize the phase steps as described above since the intervals among the phase steps can increase, and the substantial diffraction deterioration of the mold or the like due to the fabrication error can be prevented.
Table 50 illustrates the shape data of the diffractive lens structure representing the specific shapes of the diffractive lens structure in Example 5. In Table 50, the data in the grey cells are phase steps made by synthesizing the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structures 1 and 3.
The diffractive lens structure of Example 5 is composed of 49 phase steps, central surfaces divided from the phase steps, total 48 orbicular zone surfaces from orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 49, and outer circumferential surface. Although the depths of the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure 1 in Example 5 are +0.0025150 mm, the depth of the phase step of the outermost circumference is set +0.003875 mm because the phases of Regions 1 and 2 are synthesized for all of BD, DVD and CD. The depths of the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structures 2 and 3 are −0.0014980 mm.
In the diffractive lens structure 1 of Example 5, the radius corresponding to the effective diameter of Region 1 is 1.007 mm, and steps 1 to 29 exist on the above diameter. It is evident from Table 50 that a phase step, the depth of which corresponds to that made by fitting the phase step composing the diffractive lens structure 1, the phase step composing the diffractive lens structure 3, and the phase step composing the diffractive lens structures 1 and 3, exists in Region 1. Furthermore, although Phase step 29, the outermost circumferential phase step of Region 1, is a synthesized phase step, as described above, the Phase step 29 is set deep to gather the phases of Regions 1 and 2 for all of BD, DVD and CD, thereby the phase step amount is different from those of the other phase step. That is, Phase step 29 is a phase step deeper in the brazing direction than Phase steps 2, 8 and 19, which are the other synthesized phase steps.
From the above, there are 29 phase steps having four kinds of different depths in Region 1.
In addition, since the signals of the phase steps composing the synthesized diffractive lens structures 1 and 3 are opposite in the diffractive optical element of Example 5, the synthesized diffractive phase steps are made thinner by synthesizing the above phase steps, which is preferable since the substantial diffraction efficiency deterioration due to the wall surface slope can be prevented.
That is, if the phase steps having the opposite signals are synthesized as above, the fine protrusions or hollows of the phase steps are removed. Generally, in order to form fine protrusion or hollows, it is required to make the tip of the processing machinery fine correspondingly in fabricating molds. However, it becomes difficult to process the mold with high precision due to rigidity shortage as the tip of the processing machinery is made thinner. In addition, when the mold is shaped hollow, materials remain in the mold, thereby inferior shaping products easily occur, and the mold can not be used for a longer time. Although the diffractive lens structure before phase step synthesis has the above disadvantages, the disadvantages can be solved by synthesizing phase steps having different depth directions in order to design the diffractive lens structure like Example 5. That is, by employing the designing method of Example 5, the mold can be fabricated easily with high precision, shaped satisfactorily, and used for a longer time, thereby the high-quality and cost down of the diffractive optical element can be achieved.
In Region 1, the phase step amount of the diffractive lens structure 1 is determined in consideration of the balance between the diffraction efficiencies of BD and CD, and accordingly the central surface and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 29 existing in Region 1 are shaped aspherical as shown in Table 51. That is, the central surface on the optical axis is shaped aspherical surface shown in Table 51, and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 29 are orbicular zone surface shown in Table 51 shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective phase steps.
The orbicular zone surfaces 30 to 49 existing in Region 2 and the outer circumferential surface are planes perpendicular to the optical axis.
FIGS. 145 to 147 show the wavefront aberrations of BD, DVD and CD in the objective lens module using the diffractive optical element of Example 5, and it can be understood that the phases of the wavefronts penetrating the respective diffractive lens structures are gathered in the respective effective diameters for all of BD, DVD and CD.
FIGS. 148 to 153 are graphs showing the wave-optic spot shapes calculated by using the aberration due to the practical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structure, in which the ordinate represents the optical strength and the abscissa represents the radius. FIGS. 148 to 150 show the whole spot shapes at BD, DVD and CD respectively, and FIGS. 151 to 153 show the side robe of the spots at BD, DVD and CD respectively. The light-converging point of BD has a slightly smaller main spot and a slightly larger side robe than a normal lens. The above fact arises from the apodization effect generated by the fact that the diffraction efficiency of the inner circumferential portion is slightly dropped at Region 1, however, no troubles occur on recording and reproducing with that degree. In addition, since the intensity of the semiconductor laser used as a light source, in general, decreases from center to periphery, it can be preferable to drop the efficiency at the inner circumferential portion to generate the apodization effect like Example 5. Regarding DVD or CD, the spot shapes at the effective diameters φ(BD) are calculated in consideration of light outside the respective effective diameters. That is, although the spot shapes are spot shapes converging light with no special numeric aperture control element, the spot shapes almost the same as those of the normal objective lens for DVD or CD can be obtained particularly without performing opening limit.
FIGS. 154 to 157 are graphs showing the calculation result of the spot shape variation to disc tilt.
As described above, it can be understood from the lens of Example 5 that a reproducing-characteristic as stable as that when conventional DVD and CD objective lens are used can be obtained, in particular, with no control of numeric aperture.
(Application Examples to HD-DVD Objective Lens)
As a next generation optical disc system using blue light source other than BD, High Density-DVD (hereinafter referred to as HD-DVD) having 0.6 mm-thick penetration protective layer, 400 to 410 nm corresponding wavelength and 0.65 of objective lens opening is suggested. Since HD-DVD has the same values as DVD in the numerical apertures or the depth of the penetration protective layer of the objective lens, DVD can be reproduced if an objective lens designed for HD-DVD is used. However, since the refraction index of lens material varies with the wavelength practically, spherical aberration occurs in a normal aspherical surface lens designed for HD-DVD, and thus the reproduction of DVD becomes difficult. In the case of CD reproduction, since the thickness of the penetration protective layer also varies, the reproduction of DVD is further difficult. Therefore, in order to record on and reproduce DVD or CD by using a HD-DVD objective lens, it is required to correct the aberration by using the diffractive lens structure like the above-mentioned BD, DVD and CD compatible objective lens module.
The regulated numerical apertures of the objective lens of HD-DVD, DVD and CD are 0.65, 0.60 and 0.45. Therefore, the effective diameters of the objective lens are largest for HD-DVD and smallest for CD. That is, it is required to control the sizes of the openings different respectively for DVD or CD. Like the above, there are the same problems as the above-mentioned BD/DVD/CD compatible objective lens or module in the HD-DVD/DVD/CD compatible objective lens module. The problems can be solved by using the HD-DVD/DVD/CD compatible objective lens and the module or the diffractive optical element of the embodiment. That is, the diffractive lens structure formed at the diffractive optical element is at least, as shown in
The specific structure of the diffractive lens structure of the HD-DVD/DVD/CD compatible lens module is as follows.
The first diffractive lens structure (the first aberration correction means) is formed at Region 1 of the innermost circumference in order to use the combinations of the diffractive light, which can realize the diffractive lens structure that does not correct the spherical aberration for the first laser (HD-DVD laser, wavelength 408 nm), but corrects the spherical aberration for the second laser (DVD laser, wavelength 660 nm) and the third laser (CD laser, wavelength 780 nm) (for example, (HD-DVD: first-order light, DVD: first-order light, CD: first-order light), (HD-DVD: third-order light, DVD: second-order light, CD: second-order light), (HD-DVD: seventh-order light, DVD: fourth-order light, CD: third-order light), (HD-DVD: ninth-order light, DVD: fifth-order light, CD: fourth-order light)). Meanwhile, although in the HD-DVD/DVD/CD compatible objective lens module, the (HD-DVD: fifth-order light, DVD: third-order light, CD: second or third-order light) combination, the phase steps generated at the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure with HD-DVD laser and DVD laser are gathered, the spherical aberration generated to DVD is small, thereby the combination can be considered as an effective combination.
The second diffractive lens structure (the second aberration correction means) is formed at Region 2 located in the central portion outside Region 1 in order to use the combinations of the diffractive light, which can realize the diffractive lens structure that does not correct the spherical aberration for HD-DVD laser and CD laser, but corrects the spherical aberration only for DVD laser (for example, (HD-DVD: second-order light, DVD: first-order light, CD: first-order light), (HD-DVD: fourth-order light, DVD: second-order light, CD: second-order light), (HD-DVD: sixth-order light, DVD: fourth-order light, CD: third-order light), (HD-DVD: eighth-order light, DVD: fifth-order light, CD: fourth-order light)}. In the case of tenth-order light to HD-DVD, phase differences generated at the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure to the laser corresponding to the recording and reproducing of all media are almost gathered, thereby the aberration is not selectively corrected only for DVD laser. Therefore, the diffractive lens structure is designed to make the diffraction order, the diffraction efficiency of which becomes the maximum, among the diffractive lights generated when the HD-DVD laser penetrates the second diffractive lens structure even numbers except the multiple of 10. The depth of the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure can be set to generate optical path length difference such that the diffraction efficiency of the HD-DVD laser becomes the maximum according to the requested specifications or the balance between the diffraction efficiencies of HD-DVD laser and DVD laser can be considered. Furthermore, when saw-like wavefront aberration occurs, like the case of Region 1, it is preferable that only the phase step of the outermost circumference is set to vary the generated optical path length difference since better light-convergence characteristics can be obtained.
The third diffractive lens structure (the third aberration correction means) is formed at Region 3 located in the outer peripheral portion outside Region 2 in order to use the combinations of the diffractive light, which can realize the diffractive lens structure that does not correct the spherical aberration throughout all wavelength (for example, HD-DVD: tenth-order light, DVD: sixth-order light, CD: fifth-order light). In addition, Region 3 can include no diffractive lens structure (that is, only zero-order light penetrates). Therefore, the given HD-DVD opening number, 0.65, can be realized.
Next, a means correcting the spherical aberration, the amount of which is different for DVD and CD, will be described.
Since the thickness of the DVD penetration protective layer (substrate) is 0.6 mm, and that of the CD penetration protective layer (substrate) is 1.2 mm, the spherical aberrations to be corrected are different. That is, the spherical aberration for CD cannot be corrected completely in the diffractive lens structure designed for HD-DVD/DVD compatible. Similarly, the spherical aberration for DVD cannot be corrected completely in the diffractive lens structure designed for HD-DVD/CD compatible. The above facts arise from the fact that the ratio of values of the aberration amount that can correct with one phase step composing the diffractive lens structure, that is, [Round [(N−1)×d/λ]−{(N−1)−d/λ}]λ cannot be made equal to the ratio of the spherical aberration amount of DVD and CD tobe corrected. In this case, the spherical aberration that cannot be corrected by the diffractive lens structure can be corrected by making the incident light from either DVD or CD a diverging or converging light. However, for example, when HD-DVD/DVD employs the incident of parallel light and CD only employs diverging or converging light, the composition of pickup becomes complex, and thus, from the above viewpoint, it is desirable that parallel light enters in all of HD-DVD/DVD/CD.
The above fact can be realized with the method used in the above-mentioned BD/DVD/CD compatible lens module. That is, as the first method, the first diffractive lens structure formed at Region 1 commonly used at DVD/CD in such a composition as
As the third method, as shown in
As shown in
In addition, as shown in
Furthermore, as shown in
In addition, although the numbers of openings of the objective lens required for DVD and CD are regulated 0.6 and 0.45 respectively, better performance can be obtained when an objective lens including the slightly more numerical apertures than the regulation is employed. Particularly, considering recording, it is common that the numbers of openings are about 0.65 and 0.5 for DVD and CD. For example, when the numerical aperture is 0.65 for DVD, since the numbers of openings become equal for HD-DVD and DVD, the effective diameters thereof are considered equal. However, since the light source wavelengths are different for HD-DVD and DVD, and thus the focal length of the objective lens becomes different, the effective diameters (2×focal length×numerical apertures) in the objective lens also become different. In general, since the diffractive index of glass increases as the wavelength of light penetrating the glass becomes short, the focal length of the HD-DVD aspherical surface objective lens decreases as the wavelength becomes short. Therefore, comparing with HD-DVD having short light source wavelength, the focal length of the objective lens becomes long in DVD, as a result, the effective diameter becomes large. In this case, the effective diameter of DVD becomes the maximum in the objective lens module, and then the effective diameter of HD-DVD becomes large, and the effective diameter of CD becomes the minimum. That is, the effective diameter of the objective lens module becomes equal to that of DVD, the control of numeric aperture of different sizes is performed by the diffractive lens structure for HD-DVD and CD.
The above functions can be realized by the diffractive optical element having such compositions as
Furthermore, when a DVD objective lens is used in the objective lens 16a combined with the above-mentioned optical element, the diffractive lens structures are designed respectively as follows.
That is, the diffractive lens structure, which does not correct the aberration for DVD, but corrects the aberration for HD-DVD and CD, is constituted at the first diffractive lens structure in
In addition, the diffractive lens structure, which does not correct the aberration for DVD and CD, but corrects the aberration only for HD-DVD, is constituted at the second diffractive lens structure.
Furthermore, in the third diffractive lens structure, the third diffractive lens structure is constituted to make it possible to use the combination of diffractive light not correcting the aberration for all of HD-DVD/DVD/CD (for example, HD-DVD: tenth-order light, DVD: sixth-order light, CD: fifth-order light) or no diffractive lens is constituted (only zero-order light penetrates).
Still furthermore, in the fourth diffractive lens structure shown in
The diffraction orders used at the diffractive lens structures respectively are determined like the cases, in which the diffractive lens structure is combined with the HD-DVD objective lens to be used.
For example, the diffractive lens structure 1 can be designed to use (for example, (HD-DVD: first-order light, DVD: first-order light, CD: first-order light), (HD-DVD: third-order light, DVD: second-order light, CD: second-order light), (HD-DVD: fifth-order light, DVD: third-order light, CD: secondorthird-orderlight), (HD-DVD: seventh-orderlight, DVD: fourth-order light, CD: third-order light), (HD-DVD: ninth-order light, DVD: fifth-order light, CD: fourth-order light)), the diffractive lens structures 2 and 4 can be designed to use (for example, (HD-DVD: second-order light, DVD: first-order light, CD: first-order light), (HD-DVD: fourth-order light, DVD: second-order light, CD: second-order light), (HD-DVD: sixth-order light, DVD: fourth-order light, CD: third-order light), (HD-DVD: eighth-order light, DVD: fifth-order light, CD: fourth-order light)}, and the diffractive lens structure 3 can be designed to use {for example, (HD-DVD: tenth-order light, DVD: sixth-order light, CD: fifth-order light)}. That is, like the above-mentioned BD/DVD/CD compatible lens module, the combination of diffraction orders for HD-DVD, DVD and CD can be obtained by the above equations (1) to (18) and HD-DVD instead of BD. Although the diffractive lens structure generating the above-mentioned number of diffraction order can design the diffractive optical element having desired functions, among those, further desirable combinations can be extracted from the following Table 52.
Table 52 illustrates the diffraction-orders of HD-DVD and CD with respect to the diffraction-order of the diffractive lens structure used in DVD, the aberration amount corrected by one phase step (the value of the diffraction-order to be used subtracted with the optical path length difference generated at the phase steps) and the diffraction efficiency. Meanwhile, the diffraction efficiency illustrated in Table 52 is an example when the diffractive lens structure is blazed to make the diffraction efficiency 1 with respect to DVD light source, and in the practical design, it is possible to design in consideration of the balance of the diffraction efficiency in HD-DVD, DVD and CD by changing the amount of the phase steps. Therefore, in the practical diffractive lens structures, the combinations of the diffraction efficiency of HD-DVD, DVD and CD are not limited to the values of Table 52.
The diffractive lens structure 1 is required to have a function of correcting the aberrations generated at HD-DVD and CD when using the DVD objective lens. In this case, since the spherical aberrations generated at HD-DVD and CD have opposite signs in general, it is desirable that the phase step composing the diffractive lens structure 1 have the opposite signal amount of aberration correction respectively with respect to HD-DVD and CD.
It is desirable that the diffractive lens structure 2 correct the aberration with respect to HD-DVD and do not correct the aberration or increase the aberration with respect to CD. In this case, it is desirable that the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure 2 have the same-signal amount of aberration correction with respect to HD-DVD and CD. If the diffractive lens structure correcting the aberration of HD-DVD is designed with the above diffraction-order, the spherical aberration can be increased further with respect to CD.
It is desirable that the phase step composing the diffractive lens structure 3 do not correct the aberration or have the opposite-signal amount of aberration correction respectively with respect to HD-DVD and CD since the diffractive lens structure 3 does not correct the aberration or increases the aberration with respect to HD-DVD and CD. Although the light penetrating the diffractive lens structure 3 is not required for both of HD-DVD and CD, originally the light is combined with the DVD objective lens and thus becomes flare due to the spherical aberration with no additional work, thereby an effect the same as that when the control of numeric aperture is performed can be obtained. In addition, although the effect of the light penetrating the region can be decreased by adding the aberrations with the diffractive lens structure 3, when the diffractive lens structure generates the aberration, there can generate diffractive light other than the diffractive order originally imagined, and, in this case, it can become difficult to make the plurality of diffractive light flare. From the above fact, it is desirable to form no diffractive lens structure in Region 3 or to apply the combination of the diffraction-order that does not correct the aberration throughout the whole wavelength and has a high diffraction efficiency (for example, HD-DVD: tenth-order light, DVD: sixth-order light, CD: fifth-order light).
As shown in
In addition, as shown in
Furthermore, as shown in
In addition, an example of design determining the numerical apertures of DVD to gather the effective diameters of HD-DVD and DVD is possible. In this case, the control of numeric aperture can be performed only with respect to CD, and HD-DVD/DVD/CD compatible can be realized with a form, in which Region 3 of the outermost circumference is removed from the diffractive lens structures exemplified so far.
In this case, the diffractive lens structures have the shapes shown in
As shown in
In addition, as shown in
Furthermore, as shown in
Example 6 is a diffractive optical element that can record on and reproduce HD-DVD, the first optical data storage media; DVD, the second optical data storage media; and CD, the third optical data storage media; and combinedwitha double aspherical lens for HD-DVD. Table 53 illustrates the composition of the lens system and the design conditions for HD-DVD, DVD and CD.
As shown in
Region 1 is the region of the inner circumferential portion inside the fourth effective diameter as shown in
Since the diffractive lens structure 1 of Example 6 does not correct the aberrations of HD-DVD and DVD light source, but corrects the aberration of CD light sources, the diffractive lens structure 1 uses fifth-order light for HD-DVD, third-order light for DVD and second-order light for CD, and is designed to correct aberration for CD.
Since the diffractive lens structure 2 of Example 6 does not correct the aberration of HD-DVD and CD light sources, but corrects the aberrations of DVD light source only, the diffractive lens structure 1 uses eighth-order light for HD-DVD, fifth-order light for DVD and fourth-order light for CD, and is designed to correct aberration for DVD.
Since the image surface position of CD in designing the diffractive lens structure 1 is set in the same way as Example 1, it is possible to set the size of the fourth effective diameter, the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 1, smaller than the third-order effective diameter corresponding to the effective diameter of CD in the diffractive optical element. The aberration generated at the region is suppressed a sufficiently small value in DVD by setting the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 1 small as described above, even when the diffractive lens structure does not correct the aberration with respect to DVD light source.
Table 55 illustrates paraxial data, that is, the specific design results of Example 6.
Table 56 illustrates aspherical surface coefficients representing the macroscopic aspherical surface shape of the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 and the aspherical surface shape of the objective lens in Example 6.
Tables 57 and 58 are the phase function coefficients of the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 and the diffraction orders to be used (λ0=408 nm).
Hereinafter, the procedure extracting the shapes of the diffractive lens structures will be described.
When the practical shapes of the diffractive lens structures are extracted, first, the respective practical shapes of the diffractive lens structures 1 to 3 are extracted by using the diffractive lens function, the macroscopic aspherical surface shape and the diffraction order to be used. That is, like the above examples, the height from the optical axis, at which the diffractive lens functions become integers, is extracted, and then phase steps having proper direction and depth are formed to generate a given diffractive light. at the height on the macroscopic aspherical surface.
Table 59 illustrates the shape data of the diffractive lens structures showing the specific shapes of the diffractive lens structures in Example 6.
The diffractive lens structure of Example 6 is composed of 11 phase steps, central surfaces divided from the steps, total 0 orbicular zone surfaces from orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 11 and outer circumferential surface (Region 3).
The depths of Phase steps 1 to 4 composing the diffractive lens tructure of Example 6 are determined in consideration of the balance between the diffraction efficiencies of HD-DVD and CD, and the central surface and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 4 are shaped aspherical as shown in Table 60. That is, the central surface on the optical axis is the aspherical surface shape illustrated in Table 60, and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 4 are orbicular zone surfaces, in which the aspherical surfaces illustrated in Table 60 are shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective step amount. The orbicular zone surfaces 5 to 11, located outside Phase step 4, and the outer circumferential surface (Region 3) are planes perpendicular to the optical axis.
In addition, the phase step amount of Phase step 4, which is located at the border of the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 and at the outermost circumference among a plurality of the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure 1, is set slightly deeper than Phase steps 1 to 3 in order to gather the phases of the wavefronts penetrating the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 for all of HD-DVD, DVD and CD.
FIGS. 167 to 169 show the wavefront aberrations of HD-DVD, DVD and CD in the objective lens module using the diffractive optical element of Example 6, and it can be understood that the phases of the wavefronts penetrating the respective diffractive lens structures are gathered in the respective effective diameters for all of HD-DVD, DVD and CD.
FIGS. 170 to 175 are graphs showing the wave-optic spot shapes calculated by using the aberration due to the practical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structure, in which the ordinate represents the optical strength and the abscissa represents the radius. FIGS. 170 to 172 show the whole spot shapes at HD-DVD, DVD and CD respectively, and FIGS. 173 to 175 show the side robe of the spots at HD-DVD, DVD and CD respectively. The light-converging point of HD-DVD has a slightly smaller main spot and a slightly larger side robe than a normal lens. The above facta rises from the apodization effect generated by the fact that the diffraction efficiency of the inner circumferential portion is slightly dropped at the diffractive lens structure 1 (Region 1), however, no troubles occur on recording and reproducing with that degree. In addition, since the intensity of the semiconductor laser used as a light source, in general, decreases from center to periphery, it can be preferable to drop the efficiency at the inner circumferential portion to generate the apodization effect like Example 1. Regarding DVD or CD, the spot shapes at the effective diameters φ(HD-DVD) are calculated in consideration of light outside the respective effective diameters. That is, it is understood that, although the spot shapes are spot shapes converging light with no special numeric aperture control element, the spot shapes almost the same as those of the normal objective lens for DVD or CD can be obtained particularlywithout performing opening limit.
In addition, when light outside the effective diameters of DVD and CD affects the light-converging, for example, when coma aberration occurs due to disc tilt, the variation of side robe becomes large comparing with the common case, and stable reproducing characteristics cannot be obtained. Therefore, the variation of the spot shape in disc tilt when the lens of the present example is used is calculated and compared with that of common lens.
FIGS. 176 to 179 are graphs showing the calculation result.
Example 7 is a diffractive optical element that can record on and reproduce HD-DVD, the first optical data storage media; DVD, the second optical data storage media; and CD, the third optical data storage media; and combined with a double aspherical lens for HD-DVD. Table 61 illustrates the composition of the lens system and the design conditions for HD-DVD, DVD and CD.
As shown in
Region 1 is the region inside the fourth effective diameter as shown in
Since the diffractive lens structure 1 of Example 7 does not correct the aberrations of HD-DVD and DVD light source, but corrects the aberration of CD light sources, the diffractive lens structure 1 uses fifth-order light for HD-DVD, third-order light for DVD and second-order light for CD, and is designed to correct aberration for CD.
Since the diffractive lens structure 2 of Example 7 does not correct the aberration of HD-DVD and CD light sources, but corrects the aberrations of DVD light source only, the diffractive lens structure 2 uses eighth-order light for HD-DVD, fifth-order light for DVD and fourth-order light for CD, and is designed to correct aberration for DVD.
Region 3 of the outermost circumference is an aspherical surface shape, the aberration of which is corrected not to generate the aberration at DVD having the largest effective diameter, and the diffractive lens structure is not formed at Region 3. In Region 3, the aberration remains with respect to HD-DVD and CD light sources, thereby light is scattered as flare and does not contribute to reproducing.
Since the image surface position of CD in designing the diffractive lens structure 1 is set in the same way as Example 1, is possible to set the size of the fourth effective diameter, the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 1, smaller than the third-order effective diameter corresponding to the effective diameter of CD in the diffractive optical element. The aberration generated at the region is suppressed a sufficiently small value in DVD by setting the effective diameter of the diffractive lens structure 1 small as described above, even when the diffractive lens structure does not correct the aberration with respect to DVD light source.
Table 63 illustrates paraxial data, that is, the specific gn results of Example 6.
Table 64 illustrates aspherical surface coefficients esenting the macroscopic aspherical surface shape of the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2, the aspherical surface shape of Region 3 and the aspherical surface shape of the objective lens in Example 7.
Tables 65 and 66 are the phase function coefficients of the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 and the diffraction orders to be used (λ0=408 nm).
Hereinafter, the procedure extracting the shapes of the diffractive lens structure will be described.
The shapes of the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 are extracted by using the macroscopic aspherical surface shape, the phase function coefficient, and the diffraction order to be used. The diffractive lens structure 1 has the same shape as that of Example 6 since the diffractive lens structure 1 has the same design value or effective diameter as those of Example 6. The shape of the diffractive lens structure 2 is slightly different from the shape of Example 6 since the diffractive lens structure 2 has a different effective diameter from that of Example 6 and can gather the phase with Region 3, even though the diffractive lens structure 2 has the same design value as that of Example 6.
Table 67 illustrates data of the shapes of the diffractive structure showing the specific shapes of the diffractive structure in Example 7.
The diffractive lens structure of Example 7 is composed of 13 phase steps, central surfaces divided from the steps, total 12 orbicular zone surfaces from orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 13 and outer circumferential surface (Region 3).
The depths of Phase steps 1 to 4 composing the diffractive lens structure of Example 7 are determined in consideration of the balance between the diffraction efficiencies of HD-DVD and CD, and the central surface and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 4 are shaped aspherical as shown in Table 68.
That is, the central surface on the optical axis is the aspherical surface illustrated in Table 68, and the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 4 are orbicular zone surfaces, in which the aspherical surfaces illustrated in Table 68 are shifted in the optical axis direction as much as the respective step amount. The orbicular zone surfaces 5 to 11, located outside Phase step 4, are planes perpendicular to the optical axis. The outer circumferential portion, Region 3, is the aspherical surface shape illustrated in Table 69, which is shifted in the optical axis direction to make Phase step 13 a given amount.
The phase step amount of Phase step 4, which is located at the border of the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 and at the outermost circumference among a plurality of the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure 1, is set slightly deeper than Phase steps 1 to 3 in order to gather the phases of the wavefronts penetrating the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 for all of HD-DVD, DVD and CD.
In addition, the phase step amount of Phase step 13, which is located at the border of the diffractive lens structures 2 and 3 and at the outermost circumference among a plurality of the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure 2, is adjusted to make the phase of the wavefront having penetrated the outer circumferential surface gather the phase of the wavefront having penetrated the diffractive lens structures 1 and 2 for DVD, thereby the step amount is set different from Steps 5 to 12.
FIGS. 183 to 185 show the wavefront aberrations of HD-DVD, DVD and CD in the objective lens module using the diffractive optical element of Example 7, and it can be understood that the phases of the wavefronts penetrating the respective diffractive lens structures are gathered in the respective effective diameters for all of HD-DVD, DVD and CD.
FIGS. 186 to 191 are graphs showing the wave-optic spot shapes calculated by using the aberration due to the practical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structure, in which the ordinate represents the optical strength and the abscissa represents the radius. FIGS. 186 to 188 show the whole spot shapes at HD-DVD, DVD and CD respectively, and FIGS. 189 to 191 show the side robe of the spots at HD-DVD, DVD and CD respectively. The light-converging point of HD-DVD has a slightly smaller main spot and a slightly larger side robe than those of a normal lens. The above fact is due to the apodization effect generated by the diffraction efficiency of the inner circumferential portion slightly dropping at the diffractive lens structure 1 (Region 1), however, no troubles occur on recording and reproducing with that degree. In addition, since the intensity of the semiconductor laser used as a light source decreases from center to periphery in general, it can be preferable to drop the efficiency at the inner circumferential portion to generate the apodization effect like Example 1. Regarding HD-DVD or CD, the spot shapes at the effective diameters φ(DVD) are calculated in consideration of light outside the respective effective diameters. That is, it is understood that, although the spot shapes are spot shapes converging light with no special numeric aperture control element, the spot shapes can become almost the same as those of the normal objective lens for HD-DVD or CD with no numeric aperture limit.
In addition, when light outside the effective diameters of HD-DVD and CD affects the light-converging, for example, when coma aberration occurs due to disc tilt, the variation of side robe becomes large comparing with the common case, and stable reproducing characteristics cannot be obtained. Therefore, the variation of the spot shape in disc tilt when the lens of the present example is used is calculated and compared with that of common lens.
FIGS. 192 to 195 are graphs showing the calculation result.
Example 8 is an objective lens that can record on and reproduce HD-DVD, the first optical data storage media; DVD, the second optical data storage media; and CD, the third optical data storage media; and a modified example of Example 7. As shown in
Table 72 illustrates paraxial data of the specific design result of Example 8.
Table 73 illustrates the aspherical surface coefficients of the specific design result or the offset of the orbicular zone surfaces and the outer circumferential surface of Example 8.
A point intersecting the optical axis when the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 13 composing the diffractive lens structure at the first surface and the outer circumferential surface are extended on the optical axis is offset as much as the amount illustrated in Table 73 from a point, at which the first surface intersects the optical axis. That is, the offset amounts of the orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 13 are o2 to o13 shown in
Table 74 illustrate data representing step radii, that is, the heights from the optical axis of the phase steps composing the diffractive lens structure, orbicular zone width and step amount. The step radii are h1 to h13 shown in
The diffractive lens structure of Example 8 is composed of 13 phase steps, central surfaces divided from the steps, total 12 orbicular zone surfaces from orbicular zone surfaces 2 to 13 and outercircumferential surface (Region 3). Basically, the height (step radius) of the phase step from the optical axis is the same as that of Example 7. However, among the pluarality of phase steps, Phase step 13, which is located at the outermost circumference and determines the effective diameter of HD-DVD, is moved slightly to the outer circumference in order to respond the numeric aperture variation accompanying the position movement of the diffractive lens structure. Furthermore, different from Examples 1 to 7, physical step amount required to generate the same optical path difference varies with the height from the optical axis since the refractive angle of light varies considerably at the inner and outer circumferential portions when the steps are formed directly at the objective lens.
FIGS. 198 to 200 show the wavefront aberrations of HD-DVD, DVD and CD in the objective lens module using the diffractive optical element of Example 7, and it can be understood that the phases of the wavefronts penetrating the respective diffractive lens structures are gathered in the respective effective diameters for all of HD-DVD, DVD and CD.
FIGS. 201 to 206 are graphs showing the wave-optic spot shapes calculated by using the aberration due to the practical surface shapes of the diffractive lens structure, in which the ordinate represents the optical strength and the abscissa represents the radius. FIGS. 201 to 203 show the whole spot shapes at HD-DVD, DVD and CD respectively, and FIGS. 204 to 206 show the side robe of the spots at HD-DVD, DVD and CD respectively. The light-converging point of HD-DVD has a slightly smaller main spot and a slightly larger side robe than those of a normal lens. The above fact is due to the apodization effect generated by the diffraction efficiency of the inner circumferential portion slightly dropping at the diffractive lens structure 1 (Region 1), however, no troubles occur on recording and reproducing with that degree. In addition, since the intensity of the semiconductor laser used as a light source decreases from center to periphery in general, it can be preferable to drop the efficiency at the inner circumferential portion to generate the apodization effect like Example 1. Regarding HD-DVD or CD, the spot shapes at the effective diameters φ(DVD) are calculated in consideration of light outside the respective effective diameters. That is, it is understood that, although the spot shapes are spot shapes converging light with no special numeric aperture control element, the spot shapes can become almost the same as those of the normal objective lens for HD-DVD or CD with no numeric aperture limit.
In addition, when light outside the effective diameters of HD-DVD and CD affects the light-converging, for example, when coma aberration occurs due to disc tilt, the variation of side robe becomes large comparing with the common case, and stable reproducing characteristics cannot be obtained. Therefore, the variation of the spot shape in disc tilt when the lens of the present example is used is calculated and compared with that of common lens.
FIGS. 207 to 210 are graphs showing the calculation result.
Claims
1. An objective lens module comprising:
- a light-converging lens that is coaxially disposed with respect to an optical axis of first laser light having a first wavelength; and
- a transmission-type diffractive optical element that is coaxially disposed to cause diffracted light of first laser light to be incident on the light-converging lens,
- wherein the diffractive optical element has:
- an incident surface and an emergent surface; and
- first, second, and third regions that are provided on at least of the incident surface and the emergent surface in the vicinity of the optical axis, and are sequentially defined according to different radius distances from the optical axis to have different diffraction gratings of different diffraction angles, respectively, and
- the first region diffracts odd-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, the second region diffracts even-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, and the third region diffracts even-order or zero-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, such that the light-converging lens converges diffracted light from the first, second, and third regions with a predetermined numerical aperture.
2. The objective lens module according to claim 1,
- wherein, when second laser light having a second wavelength longer than the first wavelength and third laser light having a third wavelength longer than the second wavelength are incident on the first, second, and third regions along the optical path, the first region diffracts diffracted light of first and second laser light of a diffraction order lower than odd-order or even-order diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, such that the light-converging lens converges diffracted light from the first region with a second numerical aperture smaller than the predetermined numerical aperture.
3. The objective lens module according to claim 2,
- wherein, even when second laser light and third laser light are incident on the first, second, and third regions along the optical path, the second region diffracts only specified diffracted light of second laser light of a diffraction order lower than odd-order or even-order of diffracted light of first laser light to the light-converging lens, such that the light-converging lens converges diffracted light from the second region with a third numerical aperture having a value between the predetermined numerical aperture and the second numerical aperture.
4. The objective lens module according to claim 1,
- wherein the first, second, and third regions have a plurality of phase steps which cause diffracted light of a diffraction order to be generated so as to satisfy one of the following combinations:
- a combination of the following equations of
- F1≧F2≦F3, F2=ROUND [λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1]=CEIL[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1], and F3=CEIL[λ1/(N1−1)×(N3−1)/λ3×F1],
- a combination of the following equations of
- F1≧F2≧F3, F2=ROUND[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1]=FLOOR[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1], and F3=FLOOR[λ1/(N1−1)×(N3−1)/λ3×F1], and
- a combination of the following equations of
- F1≧F2≧F3, F2=ROUND[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1], and F3=ROUND[λ1/(N1−1)×(N3−1)/λ3×F1],
- (where λ1 is the first wavelength, λ2 is the second wavelength, λ3 is the third wavelength, N1 is a refractive index of a material used for the diffractive optical element with respect to the first wavelength, N2 is a refractive index of amaterial used for the diffractive optical element with respect to the second wavelength, N3 is a refractive index of a material used for the diffractive optical element with respect to the third wavelength, F1 is a diffraction order of diffracted light of first laser light, F2 is a diffraction order of diffracted light of second laser light, F3 is a diffraction order of diffracted light of third laser light, ROUND [ ] is a function for rounding-off the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number, CEIL [ ] is a function for rounding-up the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number, and FLOOR [ ] is a function for rounding-down the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number), and
- the first region is formed such that diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the first region has an odd diffraction order.
5. The objective lens module according to claim 4,
- wherein the first region is formed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the first region, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has an odd diffraction order, excluding a multiple of five.
6. The objective lens module according to claim 5,
- wherein the second region is formed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the second region, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has an even diffraction order, excluding a multiple of ten.
7. The objective lens module according to claim 1,
- wherein a radius distance of the diffractive optical element, in which a spherical aberration wavefront curved at an image surface position of third laser light passing through the first region and the second region is the maximum, is set to exist in the second region.
8. The objective lens module according to claim 1,
- wherein the diffractive optical element is provided integrally with the light-converging lens.
9. The objective lens module according to claim 1, further comprising:
- a diffractive lens structure for chromatic aberration correction that is provided on the incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element so as to correct a chromatic aberration due to a wavelength change of first laser light by a small amount.
10. A diffractive optical element which is provided on an optical path common to first laser light and plural laser light in order to cause an objective lens for converging first laser light on a first recording medium to be shared for plural laser light having wavelengths different from that of first laser light and a plurality of recording mediums corresponding to plural laser light, plural laser light having second laser light corresponding to a second recording medium and third laser light corresponding to a third recording medium, the diffractive optical element comprising:
- a first diffractive lens structure that is provided in the vicinity of an optical axis so as to correct an aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second and third laser light; and
- a second diffractive lens structure that is provided in the vicinity of the first diffractive lens structure so as to correct an aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second laser light.
11. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein, when first, second, and third laser light are incident on the objective lens, diameters of diffraction surfaces in an incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element corresponding to effective diameters of first, second, and third laser light required for recording and reproducing the first, second, and third recording mediums, respectively, are a first diffraction effective diameter, a second diffraction effective diameter smaller than the first diffraction effective diameter, and a third diffraction effective diameter smaller than the second diffraction effective diameter, respectively.
12. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein, when first, second, and third laser light are incident on the objective lens, diameters of diffraction surfaces in an incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element corresponding to effective diameters of first, second, and third laser light required for recording and reproducing the first, second, and third recording mediums, respectively, are a first diffraction effective diameter, a second diffraction effective diameter equal to or larger than the first diffraction effective diameter, and a third diffraction effective diameter smaller than the first diffraction effective diameter, respectively.
13. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure is formed in a fourth diffraction effective diameter still smaller than the third diffraction effective diameter in an incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, the second diffractive lens structure is formed in the second diffraction effective diameter in the incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, and, in the fourth diffraction effective diameter, an image surface position is set such that a longitudinal spherical aberration by third laser light is zero.
14. The diffractive optical element according to claim 13,
- wherein the second diffractive lens structure is formed in a fifth diffraction effective diameter still smaller than the second diffraction effective diameter and larger than the third diffraction effective diameter in the incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, and, in the fifth diffraction effective diameter, an image surface position is set such that a longitudinal spherical aberration by second laser light is zero.
15. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein the first recording medium has a recording layer for receiving light through a first transmissive protection layer having a first thickness, the second recording medium has a recording layer for receiving light through a second transmissive protection layer having a second thickness equal to or larger than the first thickness, and the third recording medium has a recording layer for receiving light through a third transmissive protection layer having a third thickness larger than the second thickness.
16. The diffractive optical element according to claim 15,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure corrects an aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference in thickness between the first transmissive protection layer and the second and third transmissive protection layers, in addition to the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second and third laser light, and the second diffractive lens structure corrects an aberration to be generated on the basis of the difference in thickness between the first transmissive protection layer and the second transmissive protection layer, in addition to the difference in wavelength between first laser light and second laser light.
17. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure and the second diffractive lens structure are formed on one of an incident surface and an emergent surface together.
18. The diffractive optical element according to claim 17,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure and the second diffractive lens structure are built in different regions of the incident or emergent surface so as to have concentric circle shapes and orbicular zone shapes.
19. The diffractive optical element according to claim 13,
- wherein a light-converging position at which third laser light passing through a region in the fourth diffraction effective diameter converges on the third recording medium in the incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element is disposed between a position at which corresponding laser light passing through a height from the optical axis closest to the optical axis outside the fourth diffraction effective diameter of the diffractive optical element intersects the optical axis and a position at which corresponding laser light passing through a height from the optical axis corresponding to the third diffraction effective diameter of the diffractive optical element required for the third recording medium intersects the optical axis.
20. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein the first and second diffractive lens structures are diffractive lens structures, each having a plurality of concentric phase steps.
21. The diffractive optical element according to claim 13,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure is formed in a circle having the fourth diffraction effective diameter as an outer diameter, and the second diffractive lens structure is formed in a circle having the second diffraction effective diameter as an outer diameter in the incident surface or the emergent surface.
22. The diffractive optical element according to claim 21,
- wherein the second diffractive lens structure is formed in an orbicular zone shape having the fourth diffraction effective diameter as an inner diameter.
23. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure are different from each other at the same wavelength.
24. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein, from phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure, a difference in optical path length caused by an outermost phase step and a difference in optical path length caused by each of other phase steps are different from each other at the same wavelength.
25. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein, from phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure, a difference in optical path length caused by an outermost phase step and a difference in optical path length caused by each of other phase steps are different from each other at the same wavelength.
26. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein all phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and some of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure are mixed in a region within the third diffraction effective diameter in an incident or an emergent surface of the diffractive optical element.
27. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein at least one phase step having a depth corresponding to the sum of a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure exists in a region within the third diffraction effective diameter in an incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element.
28. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein a direction of each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and a direction of each of phase steps of constituting the second diffractive lens structure are the same.
29. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure is formed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the first diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has an odd diffraction order.
30. The diffractive optical element according to claim 29,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure is formed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the first diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has an odd diffraction order, excluding a multiple of five.
31. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein the second diffractive lens structure is formed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the second diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has an even diffraction order, excluding a multiple of ten.
32. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein, when, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light having a wavelength Xl passes through the diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has a diffraction order of Fl, the diffractive lens structure causes diffracted light of a diffraction order which satisfies one of the following combinations:
- a combination of the following equations of
- F1≧F2≦F3, F2=ROUND [λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1]=CEIL[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1], and F3=CEIL[λ1/(N1−1)×(N3−1)/λ3×F1],
- a combination of the following equations of
- F1≧F2≧F3, F2=ROUND[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1]=FLOOR[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1], and F3=FLOOR[λ1/(N1−1)×(N3−1)/λ3×F1], and
- a combination of the following equations of
- F1≧F2≧F3, F2=ROUND[λ1/(N1−1)×(N2−1)/λ2×F1], and F3=ROUND[λ1/(N1−1)×(N3−1)/λ3×F1],
- (where λ2 is the second wavelength, λ3 is the third wavelength, N1 is a refractive index of a material used for the diffractive optical element with respect to the first wavelength, N2 is a refractive index of a material used for the diffractive optical element with respect to the second wavelength, N3 is a refractive index of a material used for the diffractive optical element with respect to the third wavelength, F2 is a diffraction order of diffracted light of second laser light, F3 is a diffraction order of diffracted light of third laser light, ROUND [ ] is a function for rounding-off the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number, CEIL [ ] is a function for rounding-up the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number, and FLOOR [ ] is a function for rounding-down the value in [ ] with no digits after a decimal point so as to obtain an integer number).
33. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10, further comprising:
- a third diffractive lens structure that is providedwithin the first diffraction effective diameter on an incident surface or an emergent surface of the diffractive optical element so as to correct a chromatic aberration to be generated due to a wavelength change of first laser light by a very small amount.
34. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein, in the incident surface or the emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, the third diffractive lens structure is formed on a different surface from the first diffractive lens structure and the second diffractive lens structure.
35. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein, in the incident surface or the emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, the third diffractive lens structure is formed on the same surface as the first diffractive lens structure and the second diffractive lens structure.
36. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein, in the incident surface or the emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, the second diffractive lens structure is formed on a different surface from the first diffractive lens structure.
37. The diffractive optical element according to claim 36,
- wherein, in the incident surface or the emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, the third diffractive lens structure is formed on the same surface as the first diffractive lens structure.
38. The diffractive optical element according to claim 36,
- wherein, in the incident surface or the emergent surface of the diffractive optical element, the third diffractive lens structure is formed on the same surface as the second diffractive lens structure.
39. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure are different from each other at the same wavelength.
40. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure and a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure are different from each other at the same wavelength.
41. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure, a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure, and a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure are different from one another at the same wavelength.
42. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps in the vicinity of the fourth diffraction effective diameter from phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure and a difference in optical path length caused by each of other phase steps are different from each other at the same wavelength.
43. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein a difference in optical path length caused by each of phase steps in the vicinity of the second diffraction effective diameter from phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure and a difference in optical path length caused by each of other phase steps are different from each other at the same wavelength.
44. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein all phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure, some of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure, and some of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure are mixed in a region within the third diffraction effective diameter in the incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element.
45. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein all phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and some of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure are mixed in a region within the fourth diffraction effective diameter in the incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element.
46. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein at least one phase step having a depth corresponding to the sum of a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure exists within the fourth diffraction effective diameter of the diffractive optical element.
47. The diffractive optical element according to claim 28,
- wherein at least one phase step having a depth corresponding to the sum of a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure, a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure, and a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure exists within the third diffraction effective diameter of the diffractive optical element.
48. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein a direction of each of phase steps constituting the first diffractive lens structure and a direction of each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure are different from each other.
49. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein some of or all phase steps of the second diffractive lens structure and some of phase steps of the third diffractive lens structure are mixed in a region between the fourth diffraction effective diameter and the second diffraction effective diameter in the incident or emergent surface of the diffractive optical element.
50. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein at least one phase step having a depth corresponding to the sum of a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure and a step amount of each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure exists in a region between the fourth diffraction effective diameter and the second diffraction effective diameter of the diffractive optical element.
51. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein, in a region between the fourth diffraction effective diameter and the second diffraction effective diameter, a direction of each of phase steps constituting the second diffractive lens structure and a direction of each of phase steps constituting the third diffractive lens structure are different from each other.
52. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein the first diffractive lens structure, the second diffractive lens structure, and the third diffractive lens structure are formed on one of the incident surface and the emergent surface of the diffractive optical element together, and all directions of phase steps of the first, second, and third diffractive lens structures are the same.
53. The diffractive optical element according to claim 33,
- wherein the third diffractive lens structure is formed such that, from diffracted light to be generated when first laser light passes through the third diffractive lens structure, diffracted light having the maximum diffraction efficiency has a diffractive order of a multiple of ten.
54. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein first, second, and third laser light incident on the diffractive optical element are substantially parallel light.
55. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein the diffractive optical element is provided integrally with the objective lens.
56. The diffractive optical element according to claim 10,
- wherein first, second, and third laser light have first, second, and third wavelengths, respectively, the second wavelength is longer than the first wavelength, and the third wavelength is longer than the second wavelength.
57. An optical pickup comprising:
- the objective lens module according to any one of claims 1 to 9.
58. An optical information recording and reproducing apparatus comprising:
- the optical pickup according to claim 57.
59. An optical pickup comprising:
- the diffractive optical element according to any one of claims 10 to 56.
60. An optical information recording and reproducing apparatus comprising:
- the optical pickup according to claim 59.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 11, 2005
Publication Date: Jul 6, 2006
Patent Grant number: 7227704
Applicant:
Inventor: Katsuhiro Koike (Tsurugashima-shi)
Application Number: 11/246,640
International Classification: G02B 3/08 (20060101);
